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“When you're with him, you feel like he'd stand in front of a charging elephant for you.”

David Guttenfelder, AP

“You're a legend - a gentle soul with a fierce eye and deft touch, capable of finding the heart in any and every horrific situation.”

Patrick Witty, Time mag

“He is the only one with who you can walk in a street, where everything can happen, and to make you laughing. Big and pure soul.”

Franco Pagetti, VII

“João is the most courageous, selfless, and commited photographer I've ever come across. I am one of literally thousands of people he's touched.”

Ashley Gilbertson

“João set the standard that we try to follow. João, brother, be strong and get well soon, we're all with you and your family.”

Guilad Kahn
Media Kit

Media Kit

These images are available for licensing for editorial use. Thanks to the generosity of their authors all licensing fees will go to João.
  • Tora Bora, Afghanistan, Dec. 12, 2001: An Eastern Alliance warrior watched as an American B-52 bomber circled above the Tora Bora mountains.
  • Iraq: Karmah: October 31, 2006: Sgt Jesse E. Leach assists Lance CPL Juan Valdez of the 4th mobile assault platoon Weapons company 2nd battalion 8th Marines after he was shot by a sniper during a joined patrol with the Iraqi Army in Karmah, Anbar Province, Iraq. Valdez was shot through the arm and the right side but survived. To the right is Gunnery sgt Roger J Sands...
  • April 18, 1994. (Joao Silva)
  • April, 25 & 26, 2009. Bang Bang Club movie set, Khumalo Street, Thokoza, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. The day of Ken Oosterbroek's death next to Mshayazafe hostel, at the hands of the peacekeeper's friendly fire. Photo Greg Marinovich
  • Lebanon: Beirut: July 20, 2006: A Lebanese man moves through rubble in the Bir al-Abed district that was destroyed by Israeli air strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, during a tour organized by the information office of Hezbollah.
  • Iraq: Ash Shura: April 24, 2010: A soldier with Alpha Company of the First Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment, Second Brigade, Third Infantry Division, was photographed during a night mission where members of the unit set up an over-watch position while on the look-out for insurgent IED (improvised explosive device) placers.
  • Iraq: Kurmashia Marsh: February 18, 2004: A Marsh Arab poles his canoe through Kirmashiya Marsh in southern Iraq.
  • Malawi: Blantyre: June 29, 2005: At a prison in Malawi, inmates sleep on the floor, so tightly packed that they turn only when a designated prisoner wakes them to do so en masse.
  • Iraq: Karmah: October 31, 2006: Sgt Jesse E. Leach drags Lance CPL Juan Valdez of the 4th mobile assault platoon Weapons company 2nd battalion 8th Marines to safety moments after he was shot by a sniper during a joined patrol with the Iraqi Army in Karmah, Anbar Province, Iraq. Valdez was shot through the arm and the right side but survived.
  • Iraq: Najaf: August 22, 2004: A militiaman loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr fires towards US positions in the western border of the old city in Najaf. Miliamen engaged US forces with mortar, rpg and small arms in the western edges of the old city in Najaf.
  • Kevin Carter at Lokichokio, northern Kenya, 1993. (pic Joao Silva)
  • Kevin Carter (right Joao Silva (center) and Gary Bernard (left) after the death of Abdul Sharif in Kethlehong Jan 9, 1994. (photo / Mykal Nicolau)
  • Joao and Viv Silva with their daughter Isabel and Greg Marinovich's son Luc (on Viv's lap). Johannesburg. 03/07/2005
  • Afghanistan, Kandahar province, Arghandab district, checkpoint 16, 23rd Oct 2010. Taskforce1-66 (66th Armoured Regiment), 4th Infantry Div. Charlie company on patrol from Combat Outpost Brunkhorst to COP Caron, stop at checkpoint 16 where the squad had discovered a IED the day before and wanted to receheck the area, a crossroads that is a hotspot for IED's and landmines. Soldiers: security Sgt Anton Waterman (who says Joao was right behind him when he stepped on the mine), minesweeper is PFC Edwin Laplaunt 19 trs old: "either we stepped on it or around it." Dog handler Sgt Brian Maxwell, 28. Joao Silva lost both legs below the knees in the incident. The small anti-personal mine that exploded was linked by a wire to a massive fertilizer. These were Joao's last frames after the landmine, and as the soldiers came to assist him. (ammonia nitrate) bomb. Photo Joao Silva.

João Silva

Date of Birth: August 9, 1966 (Lisbon, Portugal)
Nationality: South African
Wife: Vivian
Children: Isabel, 6, and Gabriel, 4
www.joaosilva.co.za

Career

João's first employer as a photographer was the Alberton record. He convinced the editors to let him cover the violence in Thokoza township. He finally resigned from the newspaper in order to freelance full time supplying images to Reuters and The Star. In 1996 he started shooting for The New York Times, becoming a contract photographer in 2000.

João's work has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2006, Honorable mention, Spot News stories, and a 2005, 2nd prize, Contemporary Issues.

This is João's second warzone injury. He has previously been hit by shrapnel in the face.

Sergeant Jesse E. Leach & Lance Corporal Valdez-Castillo

In November 2006 João photographed Marine sergeant, Jesse E. Leach, retrieving from the line of fire a radio operator, Lance Cpl. Juan Valdez-Castillo, who had just been shot by a sniper on a foot patrol in Karma, Iraq. See the multimedia presentation (click on chapter Sniper I).

Those images were seen around the world and earned João a World Press Photo award. The injured soldier later wrote to The New York Times saying that João's photographs had helped him and his family understand what had happened, and what he had gone through. The images also inspired artist K. J. Battles' 'The Iron Sergeant'.

Bang Bang Club

João was a member of the so-called Bang-Bang Club, a group of four photographers that covered the unrests in the townships of South Africa in the mid-nineties. The three other members were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Ken Oosterbroek.

A documentary entitled The Life of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006. A movie about the group, starring Ryan Phillippe, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.

Showcase: The Bang Bang Club (Part 1) & (Part 2), The New York Times - 20 & 21 August 2009 respectively.

Books

With Greg Marinovich: The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition, 2001.

In the Company of God, STE Publishers, 2005.

Press Coverage

For more information:

Greg Marinovich
Tel. +27 83 258 8908

This website was set up by João Silva's friends Leonie and Greg Marinovich. All proceeds will go to João.
Should João not need the funds raised through your generosity, he will donate to causes of his choice, and we will let you know about these.


All images unless indicated otherwise © 1989-2010 João Silva

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