Three exceptional photographers

Battlesight brings together the work of three exceptional photographers.

Cheryl Diaz Meyer shared the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography with David Leeson for “eloquent photographs depicting both the violence and poignancy of the war with Iraq,” made while both were senior staff photographers of The Dallas Morning News. Diaz Meyer covered the US-led invasion of Iraq as an embedded journalist attached to the 2nd Tank Battalion of the 1st Marine Division. After the fall of Baghdad, she continued to cover the aftermath as a unilateral journalist. She has returned to Iraq numerous times, to cover the capture of Saddam Hussein and the infamous “spider hole,” the Al Mehdi death squads, the Iranian infiltration into Basra, and the region’s tormented women, who set themselves on fire in an ancient practice of self-immolation. Diaz Meyer’s work in Iraq was also awarded the Visa D’Or Daily Press Award 2003 at Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, France. She currently works as a freelance photographer.

Cheryl Diaz Meyer
Dust Storm, 2nd Tank Battalion,
 US Marines, Iraq, 2003

Balazs Gardi is a Hungarian photographer who documents the everyday life of marginalized peoples and communities facing humanitarian crises. He has photographed the effects of war in Afghanistan and Pakistan both as a unilateral journalist and embedded with troops from the United States, Canada and Britain. His current long-term project, Facing Water Crises,  examines, as he writes, "the vital yet destructive presence, crippling absence and strategic value of water worldwide." Now working independently, Gardi was staff photographer at Nepszabadsag, Hungary's largest national daily, from 1996 to 2003. He studied journalism and photography in Budapest and at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Among his numerous honors are the Prix Bayeux War Correspondents Award, the PX3 Photographer of the Year Award, three World Press Photo awards, a PDN Photography Prize, and the Global Vision Award from Pictures of the Year International. He is the recipient of grants from the Alexia Foundation for World Peace  and Getty Images.

Balazs Gardi
 US soldier collapses in exhaustion, 
Operation Rock Avalanche, Korengal 
Valley, East Afghanistan, 2007

Teru Kuwayama has published photographs in Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Outside, Fortune, and Vibe, among other publications. His work on the Tibetan refugee diaspora received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, and were exhibited at the United Nations and the Open Society Institute. In 2004, Esquire profiled him as among the “Best and Brightest” of his generation for his reportage on the occupation of Iraq. In 2005, PDN cited his work in Kashmir in a selection of the most iconic images in contemporary photography. In 2006 he received a Nikon Storyteller Award, a Days Japan International Photojournalism Award, and a W. Eugene Smith fellowship for his work on Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Kuwayama is the founder of Lightstalkers, a professional and social network of photographers, journalists and other "unconventional travelers" in the media, NGOs, military, etc. He recently completed a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and received a 2010 Knight News Challenge award. He is currently a 2010 TED Global fellow.

Teru Kuwayama
Mother and daughter injured
by car bomb, Karbala, Iraq, 2003