Remembering Anja Niedringhaus

Anja Niedringhaus, the veteran AP photographer and 2007 Nieman Fellow who was shot and killed today in eastern Afghanistan while covering the run-up to the presidential election, had covered the region for more than 20 years. “For me, covering conflict and war is the essence of journalism,” she wrote in Nieman Reports, in 2012. “My assignment, regardless of the era, is about people — civilians and soldiers. The legacy of any photographer is her or his ability to capture the moment, to record history. For me it is about showing the struggle and survival of the individual.” Just days ago, the Washington Post writes, she made potatoes and sausage in Kabul for photographer Muhammed Muheisen and AP reporter Kathy Gannon, who was with Niedringhaus in the backseat of a car, in a guarded convoy, when an Afghan police officer opened fire with an AK-47. (Gannon was reportedly hit three times, in the wrist and shoulder, and is recovering.) Muheisen told the Post: “I was so concerned about her safety. And she was like, ‘Momo, this is what I’m meant to do. I’m happy to go.’” The AP is calling the shooting “the first known instance of an insider attack on journalists.”

In 2005, Niedringhaus shared a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, for coverage of the war in Iraq. To see some of her extraordinary work, go here. To read her account of a Marine’s near-fatal battlefield injuries and recovery, go here. As her Nieman classmate Craig Welch put it today in a Facebook post: “For more than a decade, she made the war real for people who were unwilling to see it. Look at her images, please. They’ll change you.” Some of Niedringhaus’ most evocative visual storytelling focused on everyday moments and portraits of women and girls: