Remembering Anja Niedringhaus through her lens

Anja Niedringhaus

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer was killed this week covering the presidential election in Afghanistan. She worked in the conflict areas of the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya from where she always displayed compassionate and courageous photojournalism. (http://www.theguardian.com)

Anja Niedringhaus,

Anja Niedringhaus (12 October 1965 – 5 April 2014) was a German photojournalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP). 
She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize.

Niedringhaus had covered Afghanistan for several years before she was killed on 4 April 2014, while covering the presidential election, after an Afghan policeman opened fire at the car she was waiting in at a checkpoint, part of an election convoy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anja_Niedringhaus)

The ill fated car

Shock attack in heavily guarded compound near Khost city kills Associated Press photographer. Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was shot in her car by a rogue police officer. The German photographer had been covering the Afghan general election. Reporter, Kathy Gannon, was also wounded in the attack. A unit commander named Naqibullah walked up to the car, yelled 'Allahu Akbar' - God is Great - and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK-47. AP executive editor say Niedringhaus was 'vibrant, dynamic, well-loved'.  
Niedringhaus becomes the 26th journalist killed in Afghanistan since 2001 - and the third in the past month. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk)

Niedringhaus, pictured at the 'Goldene Feder' German media awards

Anja Niedringhaus laughs as she attends an event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens
picture: Reuters

Anja Niedringhaus laughs as she attends an event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Anja Niedringhaus was part of the AP team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for the coverage of the Iraq war. Here, US Marines of the 1st Division raid the house of a city council chairman in the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on 2 November 2004

A Libyan rebel prays next to his gun on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, Libya, on 21 March 2011

A Canadian soldier with the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, rests next to his guns after a mission in Khebari Ghar, Afghanistan, on 3 June 2010

Afghan men line up next to a destroyed passenger plane as they wait for humanitarian aid to be delivered near the stadium in Kabul on 4 February 2002

In this photograph from November 2012, a young girl reaches out to a Pakistani policeman securing the road outside Kainat Riaz's home in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. Kainat was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot Malala Yousufzai and 13-year-old Shazia Ramazan on their way home from school. Malala was shot for her outspoken insistence on girls' education

AP colleague Muhammed Muheisen, who was with her the day before she was killed, wrote: 'Anja in few words: caring, funny and committed to photography.' In this photograph taken on 9 June 2011, a US Marine walks towards food supplies after they were dropped by small parachutes from a plane outside Forward Operating Base Edi in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The smoke in the background comes from parachutes that the Marines burn after landing

An Afghan national police officer mans a checkpoint on the outskirts of Maidan Shahr on 15 May 2013

AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said: 'Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist, well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss.' In this photograph, taken on Thursday, an Afghan girl helps her brother down from a security barrier set up outside the Independent Election Commission office in the eastern Afghan city of Khost

Associated Press president Gary Pruitt described Anja as 'spirited, intrepid and fearless, with a raucous laugh that we will always remember'. Here, in this photograph taken on 11 June 2011, Lance Corporal Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, clutches his Rosary beads as he is treated by US Army flight medic Sgt Joe Campbell on a medevac helicopter after being shot in the stomach outside Sangin, Afghanistan

more Anja link: 
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/anja-niedringhaus
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/04/photojournalist-anja-niedringhaus-killed-in-afghanistan/100710/ 
http://www.anjaniedringhaus.com/

shared thankfully from:

pic credit: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.en.wikipedia.org