Joao Silva, one of the elite Bang Bang club of photographers who worked in the townships under heavy fire during the years between Nelson Mandela’s release from prison leading up to South Africa’s first democratic election (about whom a Hollywood film was made recently), has been severely injured after stepping on a landmine near Arghandab, Afghanistan. He suffered severe injuries to the legs.
News24 picture slideshow: Joao Silva behind the lens
Silva is a multi-award winning photographer who has won the World Press Photo award and shot for many of the top agencies and publications around the world, including The New York Times for whom he was working in Afghanistan when injured.
The New York Times wrote in an editorial on its website: “Friends, colleagues and competitors of the photojournalist Joao Silva — there are many people in the first two categories, very few in the third — struggled to make sense on Saturday of the news that he had been severely injured when he stepped on a mine in Afghanistan.
“Mr. Silva was embedded with a patrol in Kandahar Province, on assignment for The New York Times, together with Carlotta Gall, who was not hurt. Three American soldiers sustained concussions.
“Those of you who know Joao will not be surprised to learn that throughout this ordeal he continued to shoot pictures,” said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, in a memorandum to the staff.
“Joao suffered serious injuries to both of his legs, along with other wounds,” Mr. Keller continued, “but he is extraordinarily strong and indomitable of spirit.”
Medics were able to reach Mr. Silva within seconds of the blast, Mr. Keller said. They applied tourniquets, administered morphine, moved him onto a stretcher and into a helicopter. He underwent surgery at a military hospital in Kandahar Province. He was next flown to Bagram Air Base, near Kabul, to have his wounds cleaned and examined, before being transported to Germany.
Silva has received much support through social networking sites and his wife has flown to Germany to be with him.
Silva was first employed as a photographer by the Alberton Record where he received permission to begin shooting pictures in Thokoza. He later resigned to work freelance and continued to submit pictures of the township violence to the Star newspaper and international press agencies, where he made his name as a brave and talented photographer.