Looking at her recent photographs enlarged, framed, and hung on a wall of an art gallery in Hyderabad, a four-time Pulitzer-winning American photojournalist, Carol Guzy, got into a contemplative mode. “You know, I am not used to seeing my pictures displayed like this in a gallery. I am more familiar with checking them on my camera’s LCD screen or newspapers,” she said, eyes still glued to a photograph of an injured civilian girl crying amidst the ruins of the war-ravaged old city in West Mosul, Iraq in 2017. “These pictures give me a sensory overload…I can smell the distinct odour of blood, hear people’s agonising screams, feel the dust from the rubbles get into my nostrils… these are not happy reminisces,” she said, slowly shuffling across to another wall to marvel at other photographers’ works.
Carol was in India in late 2019 with her recent body of work – a series titled ‘Scars of Mosul, The Legacy of ISIS’ – where her lenses tried to capture the pain and struggle of the civilians during the 2017 war between ISIS and Iraqi forces in Mosul. “The scars of emotional trauma are more difficult to heal than the physical ones,” she opined, pointing at a photograph of injured civilians walking past the ancient Great Mosque of al-Nuri, which was destroyed by the ISIS during the war.
Over the past four decades, Carol’s documentation of human stories in wars, natural disasters, and border conflicts has won her numerous awards including four Pulitzers in 1986, 1995, 2000, and 2011. But more than any award, it’s the urge to tell the world about people’s stories of hope amidst the turmoil that has kept Carol going. She said, “I think journalists don’t deserve awards at all. Awards should be bestowed upon the people to help them recover from terrible tragedies. We, the journalists, just document the times people are going through, which, unfortunately, more often than not, are tragic.”
She fondly remembers her last Pulitzer win for her in-depth coverage of the Haitian earthquake in 2010. “Haiti holds a special place in my heart. The never-say-die attitude of Haitians inspires me. Be it political chaos, anarchy, or natural disasters, it’s like they’re getting slammed all the time. Yet they have this amazing spirit. Imagine those people getting awards for being resilient in the face of adversities? Won’t that be great!” she asked, adding that documenting human stories in hostile environments is like “scouting for a ray of hope in the dark”.
Compassion comes naturally to Carol. Before deciding to wield the camera at war fronts, she was a nurse with an associate degree in the subject from Northampton County Area Community College, US. “Sometimes in journalism, your past experiences help you get a better understanding of things and gives you a moral foundation. In my case, my nursing background infused a lot of empathy and compassion in me,” said Carol. So, did she save a lot of lives during her high-risk projects? “To some extent, yes. But I never faced such a situation where I was compelled me to put down my camera and take part in a rescue mission. But we did pull people out of mobs, debris many times,” said the ace lenswoman.
The former staff photographer of The Washington Post believes in forging a bond with her subjects, which she said, “Are forever.” One of the high points of Carol’s life was when she was asked to be a godmother to a child she had photographed after the Civil War in Sierra Leone. “After the war ended, a group of war amputees had come to America for prosthetics and I was doing a documentary story on them. Among them was a little girl named Memuna, who eventually became very close to me. Later, she was adopted by a family in Washington DC and I was asked to become her godmother. She calls me ‘Yama’ as she can’t pronounce ‘Carol’,” said Carol.
Scouting for human interest stories amidst hardship and hostility has been Carol’s passion for years. But today, she wants to devote as much time as possible to her ‘other’ passion – wildlife. Because she rightfully believes, “Animals are an integral part of the human stories as well.”
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