Horst Faas Pulitzer Prize-Winning War Photographer Dies

Pulitzer Prize-winning German war photographer/photo-journalist Horst Faas, best known for his compelling mostly Black and White photos taken during the Vietnam War, died on May 10th at the age of 79. His Obit in the L.A. Times says of Haas:

As chief of photo operations for the Associated Press in Saigon for a decade beginning in 1962, Horst Faas didn't just cover the fighting — he also recruited and trained new talent from among foreign and Vietnamese freelancers.
The result was "Horst's army" of young photographers, who fanned out with Faas-supplied cameras and film and stern orders to "come back with good pictures."

He and his editors chose the best and put together a steady flow of telling photos — South Vietnam's soldiers fighting and its civilians struggling to survive amid the maelstrom

The photo above was one of many taken in 1964 that earned him the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for photography. He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his coverage of the torture and executions during the conflict in Bangladesh.

He risked his life for his work, and was so severely wounded in 1967, that he was wheel-chair bound for the rest of his life, suffering many complications from his paralysis.

He died in his native Munich, leaving his wife Ursula and his daughter Clare.

Click here to see more of his photography.

Massoud Hossaini, AFP, Wins Pulitzer For Best Breaking News Photography

Agence France Presse (AFP) photo journalist Massoud Hossaini has won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for best breaking news photography for his devastating photo of a wailing Afghan girl surrounded by carnage after a suicide bombing at a Shiite shrine on December 6, 2011.

The photo, which captures the horror and the anguish of mass death, was captured by Hossaini as he stood feet from the blast. 70 people were massacred and injured that day including many of  the young girl Tarana's family.

According to Hossaini:

''I was just looking at my camera when suddenly there was a big explosion,'' he said.

''For a moment I didn't know anything, I just felt the wave of the explosion as a pain inside my body. I fell down on the ground.

''When the smoke went away I saw I was standing in the centre of a circle of dead bodies.

''They were all together on top of each other. I was standing exactly where the suicide attacker had been.''

Hossaini said he was in ''shock'' and initially ''didn't know what to do''.

''I knew I should cover this, record everything, all the pain, the people running, crying, shouting, beating their chests, shouting: 'Death to al-Qaeda, death to the Taliban!'''

Hossaini said he turned to the right and saw the girl, Tarana, whose age has been given as either 10 or 12.

''When Tarana saw what had happened to her brother, her cousins, uncles, mother, grandmother, the people around her, she was just shouting,'' he said.

Not everyone appreciates this kind of journalism, and in some ways it does make one question the appropriateness of flashing a camera in certain situations, but it's also important to make sure that we serve as witnesses to the horrors in the world.  In spite of photographic evidence of the Nazi Holocaust, there are still those who claim it never happened. Imagine not having proof.