War

Anja Niedringhaus’ humanity in her own pictures

Bob CollinsBob Collins Apr 4, 2014
2

You can tell a lot about the type of person behind a camera by the images of the people in front of the lens.

Like these, for example:

In this file picture taken Nov. 2, 2013 photo Afghan scrap collectors transport a load of U.S. destroyed equipment from the departing U.S. military inKandahar, southern Afghanistan. As the United States military packs up to leave Afghanistan, ending 13 years of war, it is looking to sell or dispose of billions of dollars in military hardware, including its sophisticated and highly specialized mine resistant vehicles, but finding a buyer is complicated in a region where relations between neighboring countries are mired in suspicion and outright hostility. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, file) In this May 15, 2013 file photo, an Afghan National Police officer mans a checkpoint in the outskirts of Maidan Shahr, Wardak province, Afghanistan. Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Holding territory comes at a high price, coalition officials say that Afghan forces were at one point losing 100 men a week, mostly from roadside bombs. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File) An Afghan girl takes a short cut through a streaming river on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Temperatures in Kabul have risen to 27 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Farhreinheit), bringing children out to play in streams. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) In this Nov. 15, 2012 photo, a young girl reaches out to greet a Pakistani policeman securing the road outside Kainat Riaz's home in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. Security stepped up after Kainat was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot Malala Yousufzai and 13-year-old Shazia Ramazan on Oct. 8 on their way home from school. Malala was shot for her outspoken insistence on girls' education. Shazia and Kainat are to return to school this week for the first time since the shooting. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, clinches onto his Rosary beads as he is rescued onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Saturday, June 11, 2011. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) This photograph is one in a portfolio of twenty taken by eleven different Associated Press photographers throughout 2004 in Iraq. A U.S. Marine of the 1st Division carries a mascot for good luck in his backpack as his unit pushed further into the western part of Fallujah, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004. The Associated Press won a Pulitzer prize in breaking news photography for the series of pictures of bloody combat in Iraq. The award was the AP's 48th Pulitzer. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Anja Niedringhaus, who took all of these pictures, was shot to death today in Afghanistan while she was covering the elections there.