João Silva (photographer)
João Paulo da Costa da Silva (born August 9, 1966 in Lisbon , Portugal ) is a South African - Portuguese photojournalist. He became known as a member of the Bang-Bang Club and its photos from townships , when there were sometimes civil war-like conditions there.
Life
Silva began his career as a photographer in 1989 with Alberton Record, where he photographed violent riots in the township of Thokoza . Soon he was able to sell photos to the Reuters news agency , and he became a freelance journalist who also worked for the star from 1991 .
Silva formed the informal Bang-Bang Club together with photographers of about the same age Kevin Carter , Ken Oosterbroek and Greg Marinovich . They often took photos in townships and documented the bloody clashes between supporters of the African National Congress and Inkatha in the final phase of apartheid . In 1993 he accompanied Kevin Carter to Sudan , where Carter succeeded in his later award-winning photo of a child with a vulture lurking behind . Further trips took him to several African countries, the Balkans , Central Asia , Russia and the Middle East. In 1994, he began working for the Associated Press . In 1996 he became a freelancer for the New York Times , and in 2000 he got a permanent position there. In 2005 he published the illustrated book In the company of God about the life of Shiites in the Iraq war and the subsequent US occupation of Iraq .
On October 23, 2010, Silva was an embedded journalist with US troops near Kandahar . There he stepped on a land mine and lost both legs. While he was convalescing in a Washington military hospital, he was visited by First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden .
João Silva lives in Johannesburg. He is married and has two children.
Honors and reception
- 1992: SA Press Photographer of the Year Award
- 1992: Second prize at the World Press Photo Awards
- 2012: Ordem da liberdade ("Order of Freedom") of the Portuguese government
Works
- with Greg Marinovich : The Bang-Bang Club: snapshots from a hidden war. Basic Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-465-04413-1 , excerpts from books.google.de
- German as Der Bang-Bang Club - Snapshots from a hidden war. Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-88423-487-7 .
- In the company of God. Ste Publishers, 2005, ISBN 978-1919855448 .
motion pictures
- The Bang-Bang Club. Canada / South Africa 2010
Web links
- Literature by and about João Silva in the catalog of the German National Library
- João Silva's website (English)
- Silva and Marinovich on their experiences as war reporters at npr.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Article of March 15, 2012 on the award ceremony of the Portuguese-American-Journal , accessed on March 2, 2016
- ↑ a b c d Curriculum vitae on Silva's website ( memento of the original from April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed March 27, 2016
- ↑ a b joaosilva.photoshelter.com (English), accessed on March 28, 2016
- ↑ Book Description at wunderhorn.de , accessed on March 28, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Silva, João |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Costa da Silva, João Paulo da |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African-Portuguese photojournalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 9, 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lisbon , Portugal |