Top news sTories,
told from
unIque
Perspectives
It was a year of dramatIc events
and hIstory-makIng trends that
often challenged the journalIsts
and photographers who were eager
to cover them. here we talk to
photographers who managed to fInd
fresh and thoughtful perspectIves
on the year’s news storIes.
Yuri Koz Yrev
Witness to Revolutions
While many photographers documented the dramatic protests that
swept through the Arab world in 2011, Yuri Kozyrev created a body of work
unique in its breadth and scope. On the road for most of the year, Moscow-
based Kozyrev, a contract photographer for TIME, made repeated trips to
Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Libya. Kozyrev recalls, “I think that made
my experience unique.”
His coverage of the revolutions has earned Kozyrev a World Press Photo
Award, four Pictures of the Year International prizes (including Freelance
Photographer of the Year), the Prix Calvados-Bayeux prize for war reporting
and a place in PDN’s 2012 Photo Annual. TIME’s international picture editor,
Patrick Witty, who edited Kozyrev’s images of the Arab Spring, believes they
“transcend the mere documentation of historic events.” The work, Witty
says, “stands out because of his intense dedication and his brilliant, discern-
ing eye. There is a cohesion and consistency in his work that is unparalleled.”
At times, when the Libyan forces got close and staying on the ground would
have been risky, he says, “I flew to Bahrain or Yemen, and then went back to
Libya.” As he moved from Change Square in Sana’a, Yemen, to Martyr’s Square
in Manama, Bahrain, “I connected it,” Kozyrev says. “Each place had its own
revolutionary song, and each place had its own square, but I thought: These
people want changes, and it’s coming from inside.”
Kozyrev, who covered the war in Afghanistan and spent six years based out
of Baghdad, says working in Libya reminded him of his work in Chechnya, where
he also followed a popular rebellion. Of the events he covered last year, Libya
was the most challenging. “You could find yourself on the front line without a
driver,” because fixers were wary of the dangers. The rebels, he says, “could eas-
ily become angry with you, because they
were losing, and you could easily get in
trouble with the pro-Qaddafi guys nearby.”
Besides the physical dangers, he met other
obstacles. The emotional insight that in-
forms the best of his photos was difficult to
summon amidst the chaotic front lines in
Libya. “I prefer to get to know more about
the people I’m taking pictures of. It makes
the pictures more rich.” In Cairo and other
cities, he had met demonstrators who
could speak English; in Libya, however, “It
was just a crowd of people with guns, win-
ning, losing. No names, no background.” In
many of his images from Libya, such as his
award-winning photo of rebels near Ras
Lanuf leaping in the air to flee mortar fire,
Kozyrev stills the chaos and creates a strik-
ing, graphic composition.
ed the charred bodies of about 50 people
© Yuri koz Yrev/noor/redux
He learned more about what had inspired the Libyan rebels when, in August,
he followed them into Tripoli. While street
battles still raged in some neighborhoods,
the anti-Qaddafi forces uncovered carnage, allegedly carried out by Qaddafi loyalists. On a military base, Kozyrev was one
of several photographers who document-
