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| © Michael Kamber / The New York Times / Polaris |
| WINNER: Kamber's photo of a wounded soldier being evacuated in Latifiyah, Iraq, 2007. Click photo for more images from the competition. |
Having covered the Iraq War on and off since 2004 for the New York Times, freelance photojournalist Michael Kamber says he's come to regard the conflict as "the pushbutton war."
"There's often no buildup to the violence," explains Kamber, who was once again on assignment in Iraq at press time. "Then someone pushes a button and there's a flash. And you're either killed, or not." Such was the case the morning of May 29, 2007, when Kamber accompanied a platoon of U.S. soldiers who were searching the countryside south of Baghdad to try to find three abducted comrades, only to be met by
a blast from either an improvised explosive device (IED) or a land mine. "Suddenly there was a massive, horrific explosion," Kamber recalls. "As the smoke cleared I saw an American soldier, clearly dead. Sprawled around him were three other wounded Americans." One of these, badly mauled by shrapnel but expected to survive, is loaded onto a stretcher for helicopter evacuation in the photo at left, part of a remarkable series on the incident that ran in the Times and other U.S. publications.
Kamber says he alternated between helping medics tend to the wounded and photographing the scene. "I had permission to be there, and I was going to do my job," says the photographer, "but helping bandage the wounded soldier made me feel less like a vulture." Later, Kamber reflected on how quickly the incident unfolded. "I thought of how lives change here in just an instant. There is no process, no gradual way into this fight. You're okay, and then you're blown apart." Having covered conflicts in Israel, Haiti, and throughout the African continent, Kamber says Iraq is "uniquely difficult -- just a tough place to work without much upside in terms of pictures." Still, he intends to continue to record what he calls the major conflict of our generation: "Right now I'm focused on keeping this war present for the American public. When I have breaks, I plan to go back to the States to visit wounded soldiers I've met on battlefields and the families of dead soldiers. I try to make that connection between Iraq and life in the States, which I feel is missing in some way."
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