Amid the numerous photographs of the conflict in Yugoslavia, Newsweek photographer Ron Havivs work stands out as a unique record of the conflict, from its beginnings in 1991 to the present-day cessation of hostilities in Kosovo. From the front-line trenches to the refugees behind them, his images of poignant immediacy capture both the urgency and tragedy of war. Not only are they a powerful testimony to the suffering of the Balkan people, but their importance is also historical. Ron Haviv was the first of Western journalists to capture Serbian atrocities on film, photographs taken at the risk of his life, and among Western photographers, he is acknowledged as outstanding for his long months and years spent on the ground to make the photographs in this extraordinary document.
Haviv was witness to events large and small: present during the assault on Sarajevo; in Vukovar after its defeat by the Serbs there for the discovery of the Serbian concentration camp in Majnaca, images which shocked the world. Equally famous, if not so harrowing, is his photograph of the Serbian paramilitary warlord Arkan with his tiger unit, which Haviv followed as they committed atrocities in Bosnia. Ron Haviv"s pictures gained international fame, appearing in periodicals such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Paris-Match, and Stern.
In Blood and Honey, Ron Haviv includes images of peace as well as war. In counterpoint to the hardships of the front lines, he captured the daily lives of the Croatian, Serbian, Albanian, Slovenian, and Bosnian people. These photographs are an attempt to bridge the gap between what the West has commonly witnessed of the war in the Balkan, soldiers and refugees with the stark but dignified reality of everyday life during the conflict and in its aftermath.
Read more in The New York Times and the The Los Angeles Times
Experience Blood and Honey on MSNBC.com
Listen to Ron Haviv on NPR
by Ron Haviv
Essays by Chuck Sudetic, David Rieff and Bernard Kouchner