By Donald R. Winslow
NEW YORK, NY (March 18, 2008) - One of the most comprehensive and powerful visual compilations of America's past five years of war in Iraq has been published by Reuters in partnership with MediaStorm.org. "BEARING WITNESS: Five Years Of The Iraq War" is a multimedia gallery of photography, video, audio interviews, and informational graphics that's a must-see for photojournalists.
Surrounded by images, profiles of Reuters staff photographer Goran Tomasevic, Baghdad bureau chief Dean Yates, and Gulf bureau chief Samia Nakhoul bring a personal perspective and the human experience to coverage of the Iraq war, which marks its fifth year this week. American and British forces invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, on a mission initially described as an effort to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
In the five years since the invasion, 3,990 American troops have been killed in the war in Iraq and 29,395 have been wounded.
"Iraq has been the most dangerous war in history for journalists," Andrew Marshall says in the multimedia presentation's opening. He was the Iraq bureau chief for Reuters until 2005. "But I think it shows value of what we're doing ... covering the news in hostile places is a worthwhile thing, it can bring about change, it can inform the world, and it is worth us risking our lives."
"This is the way we see multimedia moving forward," Reuters global picture editor Thomas Szlukovenyi told News Photographer magazine today from London. "And it is a tribute to all the photographers, camera persons, reporters, and support staff who work under incredibly difficult conditions in war zones. We dedicate this to the 127 journalists who lost their lives reporting on the war in Iraq, including seven of our colleagues."
'"BEARING WITNESS' has been a round-the-clock project for us all," Jassim Ahmad, one of the project's creators at Reuters, said today from London. Ahmad was on the way to London's FRONTLINE Club to present the piece on Tuesday night.
"For a news agency like Reuters, which is acutely focused on the present, it's been a fascinating process to go back through five years of material," Ahmad said. "For us, MediaStorm was the obvious partner for their strengths in multimedia storytelling. It's been a great collaboration."
Brian Storm of MediaStorm.org concurs. "Our goal was to integrate the various media that Reuters creates each day - photography, audio, video, text, informational graphics - into a cohesive package that tells the Reuters story of committed coverage over the past five years."
The most impressive segment of the presentation is the "Timeline," which is a rich gallery of powerful images and a clearly-presented reconstruction of the milestone events of the war. Of the thousands of photographs shot covering the war in five years, the picture editing to bring this particular set of images together in essay in the timeline gallery is especially compelling, exceptionally strong.
The multimedia production represents the work of 16 still photographers and video from Reuters Television photojournalists. In five years, more than 100 Reuters correspondents, photographers, cameramen, and support staff have worked together since the invasion to cover the war.
"BEARING WITNESS" was produced by Bob Sacha, with executive producer Brian Storm, and graphics by Tim Klimowicz. The project was created by Ayperi Karabuda Ecer and Jassim Ahmad.
"BEARING WITNESS" is dedicated to the seven Reuters journalists killed while covering the Iraqi war: Taras Protsyuk (2003); Mazen Dana (2003); Dhia Najim (2003); Waleed Khaled (2005); Saeed Chmagh (2007); Namir Noor-Eldeen (2007); and an anonymous Reuters journalist who was killed in 2007.
The New York Times has also published a special multimedia package looking back at the last five years in Iraq. In the "Baghdad Bureau Blog," Times photojournalists and reporters share their recollections of the war.
