This spring when he returned to Sirte, Benghazi and other battle sites,
he took time to talk with Libyans. “I was very precise. I wanted to know
their names, where they’re from. It helped me tell the story,” which is only
beginning, he says, as the country decides what its future will be. “I’m from
Moscow, and we saw the changes in 1991” when Mikhail Gorbachev sur-
vived a coup attempt by Communist hardliners. “The people were the win-
ners at the time, but it took many years to fix the problems, and now Russia
has new problems.”
He wants to continue following the story. That’s something past conflicts
have taught him. “Having experience covering the war in Iraq for years and
years, it’s important to do it the proper way, from the beginning to the end.”
Witty says of Kozyrev, “He pours his heart and soul into his work and it shows.”
After nearly a year of constant travel, in December he revisited the town
in Tunisia where the Arab Spring began, then went home to Moscow. “I
thought it would be a short break for me, but there was no break. There
were demonstrations everywhere,” in advance of Russia’s national elec-
tions. He spent two months covering the protesters at home. “They had
their own squares here,” he says.
© yuri kozyrev/noor/redux
Opposite page: Anti-government protesters seek shelter under a tarp in Tahrir Square, February 2011.
Above: A rebel fighter jumps from a statue in Qaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, August 2001.
John Moore
Covering the Housing Crisis
Among the most striking coverage of ongoing economic turmoil in the U.S. is the
story of one Colorado family being evicted from their house, shot last fall by Getty
Images staff photographer John Moore. The story, published by The Washington
Post, shows sheriff’s deputies all but pulling the rugs out from beneath a baby and
toddler while removing the family’s belongings to the front lawn.
Compounding the pathos is the visible tension between the parents. The husband returned from work with the eviction in progress, and was told for the first
time by his wife—who handles the family finances—that she hadn’t paid the mortgage for months. The recession had hurt her home childcare business, and she had
been too ashamed to acknowledge the family’s financial troubles.
The story is one of several eviction stories by Moore that were part of a prize-
winning entry at World Press Photo 2012. His work personalizes a crisis that has led
to thousands of foreclosures and evictions across the U.S., and its there-but-for-the-
grace-of-God overtones shatters any illusions that the American Dream comes with
a guarantee, even for people who work hard and play by the rules.
both photos © john moore/getty images
Left: Chase Milam, 1, watches as an eviction team member and sheriff’s deputy remove household goods during a home foreclosure in Miliken, Colorado.
Right: The Barbiere family’s possesions were moved to the front lawn of their foreclosed home before the door locks were changed.
