It’s a journalistic tradition: At the end of each year, the New York Times publishes “The Year in Pictures.”
For a number of years, there’s been another tradition: The feature includes the work of Staples High School graduates Lynsey Addario (Class of 1991) and Tyler Hicks (’88). Both are Pulitzer Prize winners.
The tradition continues this year.
The very compelling Times section includes:
Dnipro, Ukraine, January 18. Lynsey Addario photographed Olha Afanasieva, 49, recovering in the hospital after sustaining serious injuries in a Russian strike on her apartment building. She and her husband were sitting at their kitchen table when the missile hit.
Lynsey said: “I was looking at her from the right-hand side and I was trying to photograph her eyes and the injuries, and it wasn’t coming together. Suddenly she turned and the other side of her face was a patchwork. It just spoke to me, and symbolized all of these lives and faces, and everything that has been torn in the country.”
Bakhmut, Ukraine, March 17. Tyler Hicks captured medics helping a Ukrainian soldier who was injured by shrapnel on the front line. The fight for the city, which Russia later captured, was one of the deadliest clashes in the war.
Bakhmut, Ukraine, May 19. Tyler Hicks’ shot showed the smoldering remains of Bakhmut, just days before Russia claimed victory there. It took the Kremlin almost a year and cost the lives of thousands of soldiers to capture the city.
Tyler said: “Despite having seen military photographs of the devastation of Bakhmut, to actually be in control of a drone and fly up to the edge of the city and see it, live, really solidified in my mind how much the city had been destroyed and how many lives had been lost in the process. It was personally quite shocking.”
Outside Makarivka, Ukraine, July 26. Tyler Hicks’ harrowing image shows the body of a Russian soldier in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Ukraine was waging a counteroffensive. In 2 months, Ukrainian troops had advanced less than 10 miles at any point along the region’s 100-mile front.
Tyler said: “I saw what I originally thought was just a uniform that had been discarded on the road, but on closer inspection I realized it was a body. There had been no effort made to move the body. He’d been run over so many times that he became impacted tot he point that the body had become part of the road.”
Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, September 14. In Lynsey Addario’s shot, a Ukrainian soldier prepared to release a drone to fly over Russian-occupied territory in search of heavy weapons and air defense installations. In a counteroffensive often reliant on small advantages, a fleet of inexpensive drones provided one for the Ukrainians.
Lynsey explained: “When we approached the team of soldiers, they were hiding in the bushes. We heard Russian drones flying overhead, and it was terrifying. Most of the war at this point is fought by drone. There’s nothing you can do, just hope you are hidden well enough. The soldier released the drone and we ran back into the bushes.”
What Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks do is dangerous, remarkable, and very important. To see more work from their colleagues, click here.
These pictures of an uncalled Russian war on Ukraine are harrowing and frightening.
The photographers, taking these pictures for the world to see the reality of wanton destruction, are incredibly dedicated to their profession and very very brave!!
Lynsey and Tyler are such amazing photographers. They were at Staples at almost the seam time. Was there a particular teacher who inspired both of them?