All posts filed under: Portraits

IWMF Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists Grant for “Burge Victims Speak”

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Thrilled to announce for the first time in my life, I am being given a grant by the International Women’s Media Fund (IWMF) Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists to stay home and work. I’ll be spending the next year at least in Chicago interviewing and photographing survivors of municipal police torture under former Commander Jon Burge, who imported techniques such as electrotorture which he learned as a military police officer in Vietnam onto the streets of Chicago for nearly 20 years to force confessions from 1972 until he was suspended from the force in 1991 and fired in 1993. He later served four years for perjury but still receives a full city pension. Very special thanks to everyone who has lent time, expertise, knowledge, and patience to this project so far, there are many of you to thank and a few of you who would rather I didn’t but know you have helped tremendously and I am filled with gratitude.

Best of 2014: Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Germany and Sweet Home Chicago

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(NOTE: Much of my work from this year remains under embargo until publication including my recent work in Bosnia and Herzegovina with National Geographic Young Explorer Grantee Cara Eckholm.) In February, events in Ukraine rapidly spiraled out of control following the peaceful occupation of the central Maidan Niezalezhnosti or Independence Square in Kiev that had begun late in 2013. On the evening of February 18, 2014, the government of Viktor Yanukovych ordered snipers positioned around the square to fire on demonstrators. The gunfire continued intermittently, killing dozens for two days until it stopped. Then Yanukovych fled to Russia. Since then, Russia has annexed Crimea and sent troops into eastern regions of Ukraine. The government in Kiev has realigned itself with the West and the European Union. In early April, I traveled to Kiev to photograph those who had survived the sniper attacks from February 18-20, 2014 and to hear their stories. I hoped to bring their voice into a conversation about the conflict playing out in the international media and policy circles in Washington and …

Limited Edition Print Sale: Refat, Maidan Heroes Series

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LIMITED EDITION DIGITAL C-PRINTS in the following sizes in a single edition of 20: 16″ x 20″ = $450   24″ x 30″ = $750   30″ x 40″ = $1,250   All prints digital C-prints by Duggal in New York, signed and editioned by photographer. * Orders placed before April 30 will be deliverable in mid-May 2014. + About the image: REFAT Refat, 19, a Ukrainian soldier from Crimea, sits on his hospital bed at the Main Military Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kiev, Ukraine on April 8, 2014. Refat was shot in the left knee by a sniper on February 20, 2014 while trying to maintain a line of soldiers on orders and had the lower part of his left leg amputated from above the knee. “We had orders to stand in the line. In the morning, it was quite calm and silent and then the protesters started to attack and they threw a grenade and I walked away from there and then I felt a sniper’s bullet in …

New Work: Maidan Heroes

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“I first came here when students were on strike in favor of the association agreement with the European Union. I was here the night students were beaten but I left at midnight to sleep, but when I heard they were beaten I had a new reason to protest on the Maidan. Two days later, City Hall was occupied and I worked in the kitchen and then I moved up to working with the commanders. Then when it started on Hrushevsky Street in January, I was bringing tea and cookies to the demonstrators. Then when the Ukraine House was occupied, I started working in the press center. Of course Yanukovych is responsible for this. I don’t know who else is responsible, but I know Yanukovych has already been punished. I want honest authorities. Right now we can see changes of faces, but I want new faces. People are awake now but of course there is still ignorance and people who are not supporting Maidan. I want awareness.” -Yulia, 18 From February 18-20, 2014, the Maidan Square …

The Year in Pictures 2011: Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan and Turkey

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The Year in Pictures 2011 The annus horribilis of 2011 is coming to a close – a year that will go down as one of dramatic upheaval and revolution alongside 1789, 1848, 1917, 1989, and now, this year. In Egypt, young revolutionaries overthrew the government of Hosni Mubarak after 31 years of subservience to a one-party state bolstered by an omnipresent muhabarata, or secret service, further bolstered by an overreaching military, after Egyptians witnessed similar events in Tunisia lead to the removal of that country’s former leader Ben Ali. Consequently, the domino theory made a surprise return as events in Egypt triggered revolts elsewhere in Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen. Of these, only Libya’s leader fell after rebels received aerial support from NATO war planes; Qaddafi was found hiding in a drainage canal near his hometown of Sirte (or Surt, depending on your news source and spelling) and subsequently dragged through the streets, sodomized with a knife and otherwise tormented before being shot in the head. In the Libyan conflict three photographers lost their lives, …

The New Inquiry: Vaclav Havel, 1936-2011

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Vaclav Havel, 1936-2011 The New Inquiry December 18, 2011, 5:44PM by Amanda Rivkin Where are the great men? Are we beyond the point of elevating the individual over the group, or are there simply no more individuals? Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer, has warned for more than a decade of the emergence of “leaderless jihad” as terrorist movements spawn violent individuals. But lately his idea has been turned on its head, as the movement for freedom attempts to override the putsch for security. It seems there are no more barriers between the secure, the secured, and the guardians of their security; it is all the same anarchy, brutality, violence, and havoc. There is the elite and then there is everyone else. Enter Vaclav Havel. The words of a Czech man were forwarded to me this afternoon, and they hit me like a cold sheet: “Yep, the last great man.” Every obituary printed today mentions Havel’s achievements: playwright and poet, artist, intellectual, and dissident — but these are titles. More important, he was an inmate …

The Denver Post: Photos – Rod Blagojevich Gets 14 Years in Prison for Corruption

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Images #32-#34 on The Denver Post website online photo gallery, “Rod Blagojevich Gets 14 Years in Prison for Corruption,” today feature my work covering Rod Blagojevich in 2008-2009: “CHICAGO—Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday, December 7, 2011, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics. Blagojevich’s 18 convictions included allegations of trying to leverage his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat to raise campaign cash or land a high-paying job.”