The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City was the most photographed terrorist act — and perhaps the most photographed single news event– in history. Photography also played an important role in efforts to comprehend the grief, loss, and actions that followed.  On the tenth anniversary of the attacks, photographs –taken before, during and after that day – form the centerpiece for numerous cultural events and public reflections.   Here is a partial list of exhibitions and online galleries.

Exhibits and Events
Joel Meyerowitz: “Aftermath”

© Joel Meyerowitz

The only photographer granted access to Ground Zero during the months of recovery will display his work in this gallery exhibition. Phaidon has also re-released his book, Aftermath, in a new tenth anniversary edition.
September 10-17. Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.  (Opening reception and book signing, September 10.)
www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/2011-09-10_joel-meyerowitz/

“Remembering 9/11”
The International Center of Photography has collaborated with the National September 11 Memorial Museum on “Remembering 9/11,” a five-part exhibition: “Memory Remains: 9/11 Artifacts at Hangar 17;” photographs from Eugene Richards’s Stepping Through the Ashes; a five-channel video installation, cedarliberty, by Elena del Rivero and Leslie McCleave; “Above Ground Zero,” photographs and proof sheets by Gregg Brown; and excerpts from the storefront exhibition that opened in New York shortly after 9/11, “here is new york: a democracy of photographs.” Through January 8.  International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, New York.
www.icp.org

© Camile Jose Vergara

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Friends of Anton Hammerl, the South African-born, London-based photographer and photo editor who was killed by pro-Qaddafi forces in Libya in April, have set up a Web site, www.friendsofanton.org,  to raise money for his three children. Tax deductible donations made to the site, which is sponsored by the non-profit Reporters Without Borders, will be used for the future education of Aurora, 11, Neo, 7, and Hiro, six months old.

Several photographers have donated prints which are being sold through the site; they include Joao Silva, Greg Marinovich, David Burnett, Teun Voeten, Frank Fournier, Andrew Testa and Teru Kuwayama, among others.

“Many people wanted to contribute to the future of Anton’s children,” says journalist Colleen Delaney, one of the volunteers behind the creation of the site. “There has been so much good will and the photo and journalism communities wanted to help.”

Photographer David Brabyn, another volunteer, says in a press release, “Everyone has worked tirelessly to get this project on the road – from the talented photographers who are donating their works, right down to web-based companies such as Emphas.is and PhotoShelter, who advised us, donated the account and waived transaction fees.” The site has also been supported by The Steven Vincent Foundation, digitaltechparis.com, Human Rights Watch and Committee to Protect Journalists.

Hammerl was working in Libya alongside photojournalist Manu Brabo and reporters Clare Morgana Gillis and James Foley on April 5 when the four went missing. While the other journalists were held in prison, Hammerl’s whereabouts remained unknown for six weeks. Upon their release in June, Gillis, Foley and Brabo informed Hammerl’s family that they had seen him shot by Libyan forces the day they were detained.

Related story:
Anton Hammerl Presumed Dead, Family Announces

Photographers covering the rioting in London have been assaulted, robbed and had their cameras smashed, according to a report in the London newspaper the Guardian.

The civil unrest began Sunday in the north London district of Tottenham after police shot a black youth and has since spread to other neighborhoods and cities around the UK. Photographers trying to cover the violence have been attacked in several locations. The Web site journalism.co.uk also reported that tv crews and camera trucks have been attacked in several neighborhoods in south and east London.

On Sunday, two photographers represented by the agency Matrix had £8,000 worth of equipment smashed by looters in Tottenham. One was knocked to the ground and kicked, according to an eyewitness quoted in the Guardian. On Tuesday, another photographer was attacked and beaten by four youths in a housing project in Hackney, in East London.

Paul Lewis, a reporter for the Guardian who had tried to cover violence in Hackney, told the paper,  “A number of people who have been taking photographs have been attacked,” including citizens using cellphone cameras. “I’ve seen journalists attacked quite badly actually.” The paper also reported that photographers and videographers were trying to make themselves inconspicuous by using amateur cameras.

© AP Photo/David Guttenfelder

In June,  the Associated Press announced it had signed an agreement with North Korea’s state-run news agency to open an AP photo and text bureau in Pyongyang. The AP also noted that David Guttenfelder, AP’s Chief Asia Photographer, had already made several trips to North Korea this spring, photographing extensively in several parts of the country.

Guttenfelder’s photos of this secretive nation were published this week on The Atlantic web site and in The Independent, the UK paper. As the article in the British paper notes, “The pictures are among the most candid ever published in Western newspapers.”

In a country where the press is tightly controlled, Guttenfelder captured slices of daily life in a variety of settings: a university and a pool for its students, a library, an elementary school, a fast food restaurant, a subway station, a museum dedicated to the Korean war. Guttenfelder also photographed outside Kim Il Sung’s mausoleum, where tourists pose for photos. Some of his photos depict an eery quiet: an empty multi-lane highway leading to the Pyongyang airport, and a traffic cop standing in a Pyongyang street where there seems to be no traffic. His photos are often beautiful, capturing landscapes of color and sometimes startling clarity: as The Independent notes, the lack of industry means there’s little smog.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its 2011 Impunity Index, which calculates the most murderous countries for journalists. And the 2011 winner of the most dangerous country for journalists is…..Iraq!

Yes, Iraq held onto its spot at number 1. In fact, the Iraqi government’s record for investigating and prosecuting anti-press violence actually got worse in 2010, a year that saw a spike in the murders of journalists. Somalia, from which nearly 60 journalists have fled in the past decade in the face of threats, ranked number 2 for the second year in a row. Also making the list are the usual suspects when it comes to anti-press violence: Afghanistan, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan.

The CPJ’s Impunity Index identifies countries where journalists are regularly murdered in retaliation for their work, and where governments fail to find and convict the killers.

There isn’t much good news on this year’s Impunity Index. Colombia saw a lessening of anti-press violence, but still ranks 5th on the list.  Russia had its first year without any journalists being killed in reprisal, and won convictions in two 2009 murders. However,  there have been no convictions in some high-profile murder cases, including the 2006 killing of Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist and author who reported on the war in Chechnya.

Other details from the CPJ’s Special Report:
Local journalists make up the overwhelming majority of victims of unsolved murders.
About 28 percent of the victims were covering conflict zones.
South Asia is a dangerous place to try to cover politics or crime.

More details on the 13 countries that made the CPJ’s Impunity Index, and an explanation of CPJ’s methodology, can be found in the CPJ’s Special Report, aptly titled “Getting Away With Murder.”

After a long silence, journalists are now talking about the inequality in care paid to photojournalists working in war zones, and the local fixers who help them in their work. The issue is now being addressed by the Poynter institute, the non-profit journalism education organization.

Reporting on the Poynter Web site, writer Steve Myers talks to photographers and editors about what protection, if any, they are authorized to offer local fixers if they are injured or threatened while on the job. Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists notes, “I’ve seen news organizations absolutely step up and support people—even people who have been contracted informally—and I’ve seen news orgs turn their back on people.”

One problem, Simon explains, is the variety of relationships between fixers and the organizations who hire them, “from the one-time assignment to the everyday job, from the driver hired by a full-time employee to one picked up by a freelancer.”

Photographer Lynsey Addario, who worked with two drivers who met bad ends—one, a driver in Afghanistan’s Swat valley who was killed when he fell asleep at the wheel, another who was very likely murdered when Addario and three New York Times colleagues were captured in Libya—argues that the Times has compensated locals when appropriate, but points out that not all hires are alike. “A blanket rule would presume that all situations abroad with local hires are black and white, and anyone who has worked overseas knows that that just isn’t the case.”

The New York Times has been criticized for its treatment of the three media assistants who have died while working for the Times since 2003. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, tells Myers that the paper has spent hundreds of thousand of dollars to repatriate media assistants who have been in danger in Iraq and elsewhere. “We have relocated local hires when their work put them at risk, paying all of their costs.” Keller adds that freelancers on assignment for the Times are placed on the newspaper’s insurance plan when they enter conflict zones; for locals, however, “we assume responsibility for death, disability and medical at our own expense.”

One interesting note: the Committee to Protect Journalists says that media companies can get specialized insurance for its fixers in conflict areas. The policies are expensive. Photojournalist Teru Kuwayama, who has been outspoken in his criticism of news organizations’ treatment of fixers, says taking out such policies on fixers would be a “massive step forward.”

The full article can be found at: Poynter.org.

Related stories:

Talking about the Deaths We Don’t Talk About

What to Expect if You’re Injured on Assignment

In the two weeks since the deaths of photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, the photojournalism community has been working through the stages of grief – bargaining, depression, lots of anger—and searching for ways to make something positive out of tragedy.   Forced to admit their vulnerabilities, conflict photographers are facing some unpleasant truths about the inequities in their industry. As the publishing industry shrinks, media companies are retreating from obligations to help freelance journalists when they get into trouble. They are also avoiding responsibility for the fixers, translators and drivers whose dangerous work is essential to war zone coverage.

An article in PDN’s June issue explores what freelance photographers can and can’t expect from clients if they are injured. In reporting the article weeks before the tragedies of April 20, writer Jay Mallin could find no newspapers or magazines willing to state their policies regarding support for injured freelancers– or even if they have a policy at all.

Photographers often put their trust in the photo editors they work with to bail them out of dangerous situations; there are plenty of anecdotes of photo editors working the phones to make sure contributing photographers get proper medical care. But in corporate media entities, legal and accounting departments hold sway.  Tom Kennedy, who has worked as director of photography for National Geographic and editor for Washingtonpost.com, says, “Most organizations that I am familiar with that are working with freelancers regard them as independent contractors who are responsible for their own insurance, their own well-being.”  As magazines move from contracts and assignments to more tenuous “guarantees,” their obligation to photographers becomes more vague.

And what help can the fixers, translators and drivers whom news organizations employ in war zones expect? Every conflict photojournalist acknowledges that a veteran fixer with proven local knowledge, contacts and language skills is an invaluable asset. They also admit that these locals (whom the Committee to Protect Journalists call “media workers”) face far greater risk for retaliation or attack than the foreign journalists they work for.  Paid by the day or the job, they face the same hazards without insurance, workers compensation or contracts with their employers. When they are killed doing their jobs, their families receive no pension or insurance settlements.

In an article published last week on Gizmodo, photojournalist Teru Kuwayama, wrote, “Those people constitute a vast, grey, undocumented labor force that the international news industry is 100 percent dependent on. They face the highest risks, and almost invariably, they pay the highest price.”

Statistics and anecdotes bear this out. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that of the journalists killed in 2010, 89 percent were local, 11 percent were foreign.

In their first-person account of being taken captive by pro-Qaddafi forces in Libya, photographers Lynsey Addario, Tyler Hicks and two New York Times reporters reported that their driver, Mohammed, tried to plead with the soldiers, shouting, “Journalists!” The four Times journalists were about to be shot when a soldier spared their lives with the words, “You can’t. They’re Americans.”  As they were driven off in a truck, “Lynsey saw a body outstretched next to our car, one arm outstretched. We still don’t know whether that was Mohammed. We fear it was, though his body has yet to be found.” To date, The New York Times has described Mohammed as “missing.”

Kuwayama argues that the disparity in treatment, attention and concern paid to “internationals” and “locals” kidnapped, injured or killed on the job is “the Achilles heel of the war reporting business.”

It’s a topic the photojournalism community has been reluctant to discuss.  Kuwayama’s decision to talk of “bodies swept under the carpet” in the midst of the mourning for Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros has offended so many, Gizmodo’s editors introduced his essay with a disclaimer:  “The words are provocative. We ask that you read them with an open mind.”

We would encourage readers to do the same, and also to openly and candidly ask clients what support they and their colleagues – all of them, local and not—can hope for if they find themselves in danger.  There’s no bad time to try to make something positive out of tragedy.

Related story:
What To Expect if You’re Injured on Assignment

© AP Photo/APTN

Did a family emergency, act of God or snooze button prevent you from tuning in to watch the Royal Wedding this morning? Don’t worry, the Associated Press has you covered. The wire service sent 21 photographers to document every last detail of Wills’ and Kate’s big day.

AP picture editors are already picking through the thousands of images AP photographers made, the best of which will be gathered into a commemorative book that will be available next week (technology!) from online on-demand publisher My Publisher. The handshake between Mr. Middleton and the Prince, the exchange of rings, the kiss (!), that rascal Harry’s proud smile—all of these moments can be yours to cherish.

The limited-edition book—limited to what, you ask? As many copies as people are willing to order, we’d wager—will be available in two sizes. Prices for your very own Royal Wedding album have yet to be announced, but we’re pretty sure they’re just going to call it priceless. Well played, AP.

Watch this space: http://www.mypublisher.com/royalwedding

Award-winning photographer Chris Hondros has died of injuries he sustained in Misrata, Libya earlier today, his agency, Getty Images, has confirmed.

Getty released the following statement:

“Getty Images is deeply saddened to confirm the death of Staff Photographer Chris Hondros who has died of injuries while covering events in Libya on April 20th.  Chris never shied away from the front line having covered the world’s major conflicts throughout his distinguished career and his work in Libya was no exception. We are working to support his family and his fiancée as they receive this difficult news, and are preparing to bring Chris back to his family and friends in the United States.  He will be sorely missed. ”

Tim Hetherington was also killed in the attack. Also injured were photographers Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown, according to a report in The New York Times.

An obituary for Hondros has been posted on PDNOnline: “Chris Hondros Dies of Injuries in Libya”

Related story:
Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

© PAULA BRONSTEIN

A new iPhone/iPad slide show app, featuring images of tsunami devastation and rebuilding in Japan taken by 14 international photographers, has been launched to benefit the Japanese Red Cross Society. The “3/11 Tsunami Photo Project” app sells for 99 cents on the iTunes store, and has been released with help from Kodansha Ltd., Japan’s largest publisher.

The current version of the app has images, comments and audio recordings by Dominic Nahr, Adam Dean, Shiho Fukada, James Whitlow Delano, Paula Bronstein, Jean Chung and Keith Bedford. An update to the app, due out later this month, will add contributions from Pieter Ten Hoopen, David Guttenfelder, Giulio di Sturco, Ko Sasaki, Jake Price, Guillem Valle, Ryo Kameyama. In all, the app will show 120 images by 14 photographers.

To purchases the app, visit the Apple iTunes store:
itunes.apple.com/app/id431226495#