Afghan schoolgirls peer out of the window of their classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April 2013. Today, girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to go to school beyond the sixth grade.
‘She really saw into the hearts of people’: The legacy of Anja Niedringhaus
Photographs by Anja Niedringhaus/AP
Story by Kyle Almond, CNN
Published April 4, 2024
Afghan schoolgirls peer out of the window of their classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April 2013. Today, girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to go to school beyond the sixth grade.
Anja Niedringhaus worked in conflict zones around the world and frequently risked her life to tell stories.
But she never wanted to be called a “war photographer.”
“She wasn’t covering a war. She wasn’t covering a country. She was covering a people,” said Kathy Gannon, a close friend and longtime colleague at the Associated Press.
Niedringhaus gave us a glimpse into lives that we often don’t see, focusing her lens on those most impacted by war, sharing their struggle while highlighting their courage and humanity.
“She really saw into the hearts of people,” Gannon said.
Ten years ago, Niedringhaus was killed while covering the lead-up to Afghanistan’s election. She and Gannon were in the back seat of a vehicle, traveling with a convoy of election workers delivering ballots, when a police commander walked up to their car, yelled “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) and opened fire.
Gannon, now 70, remembers not knowing what happened at first.
“I thought there had been an explosion, and I remember looking down and my hand was almost gone,” she said. “There was lots of blood. … I felt the last couple of bullets, and then I could smell the sulfur and that’s how I knew that it wasn’t an explosion.”
Gannon was severely wounded. She was hit with seven bullets, two of which shattered her right shoulder blade and punctured her lung. Niedringhaus was leaning against her, not saying anything.
The two were rushed back to receive medical attention. It wasn’t until about six to eight hours later that Gannon found out that her friend had died.
Niedringhaus was 48 years old. The critically acclaimed German photographer, part of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for its photography of the Iraq War, was admired by many.
“She consistently volunteered for the hardest assignments and was remarkably resilient in carrying them out time after time,” said Santiago Lyon, who at the time was the AP’s vice president and director of photography. “She truly believed in the need to bear witness.”
Niedringhaus was also remembered fondly for her infectious laugh and her generosity. “She would always be working with local photographers and local TV people, and if they had problems with their equipment or access, she was always, always wanting to help her colleagues in the field,” Gannon said, adding: “Anja was all heart.”
For five years, Niedringhaus and Gannon teamed up to cover many stories out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Gannon was AP’s senior correspondent. The pair hit it off instantly and soon became “inseparable,” Gannon said.
“Anja really wanted to tell the stories that sort of made the invisible visible,” Gannon recalled.
They talked about doing a book together at the end of 2014, combining Niedringhaus’ photos with Gannon’s words. At the time, the country was very insecure, and many Afghans were frustrated by corruption and the violence caused by a growing Taliban insurgency.
“She had this vision to tell, through images, the resilience of Afghans ... their determination still to vote,” Gannon said.
Ten years later, Niedringhaus’ vision is now a reality.
Some of her most powerful images are featured in a new book, “Anja Niedringhaus,” that will be available at an exhibition opening Thursday at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York.
Gannon helped to curate the book and exhibition, which features much of the work she did with her friend.
“The book and the images really speak to her spirit and and also to the spirit of what we do as reporters, as photographers, in our effort to try to inform and try to tell the story of others,” Gannon said.
As part of the exhibition’s opening on Thursday, the International Women’s Media Foundation will announce the winner of its annual Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award.
Since 2014, the award has celebrated women photojournalists whose work reflects courage and dedication.
Niedringhaus once said, “I do my job simply to report people’s courage with my camera and with my heart.”
Gannon said this perfectly encapsulates how her friend approached her work.
Gannon’s recovery has been a long process, filled with 18 operations — another one is this month — and lots of physiotherapy.
She retired from the AP two years ago, but she still went back to work in 2016, determined to do right by her friend.
“Anja would be crazy if she thought that I would be too afraid to go back,” Gannon said. “That’s something she would have never accepted, to let some crazy gunman decide my future.
“And it was really important that I go back and not see Afghans in Afghanistan differently, because Afghans are extraordinary people. They’re kind. They’re warm.”
Gannon says she has gone over the events of 10 years ago “a million times in my head” but still believes they would make the same decisions today.
“We were careful. We were smart. We took all the precautions as best we could, short of staying in the office,” she said. “But we wanted to cover the story.”
She received calls from Afghans who apologized on behalf of their country. She would tell them that one gunman doesn’t define a nation.
“If I looked at every Afghan as a potential threat, then how can you tell their stories?” she said. “And what a disservice that is to them and to me and to AP and to our profession. ...
“I had to go back. I did it for me, but I also did it for Anja.”
The Anja Niedringhaus exhibition opens Thursday, April 4, at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York. Copies of the photo book will be available for purchase. The exhibition ends May 5 and will later move to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.
