Moises Saman

Lebanese border, Summer 2006

Moises Saman (b.1974, Peru) grew up in Barcelona, Spain and then moved to the USA to attend California State University. Shortly after graduating with a degree in Communications Moises moved to New York and became a staff photographer at New York Newsday from 2000-07. Since 2001 Moises has concentrated on covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as projects in Asia and Central America. In 2008 Moises’ work from El Salvador received special mention in the Overseas Press Club “Olivier Rebbot Award” and was placed 3rd in the Magazine Photographer of the Year Award from POYi. In 2007 Moises’ work from Afghanistan received a 3rd prize in the  World Press Photo contest and an Honorable Mention in the UNICEF Photo of the Year awards.  In 2004 Moises was selected for the World Press Photo Masterclass. He is based in Brooklyn, New York.

About the Photograph:

“The conflict between Israel and Lebanon in the summer of 2006 took everyone by surprise. After a brazen cross border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas in which two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and several more killed in the ensuing fighting, Israel retaliated with a massive air and ground military campaign across Lebanon. While on assignment for New York Newsday i was asked to cover the first two weeks of the war from Israel, basing myself in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, a city within range of the Katyusha rockets being fired on a daily basis from Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. The Israeli Army only allowed a handful of journalists to embed with their forces as they invaded Lebanon, and gaining access to the border areas on my own proved extremely difficult.”

“As the Israeli bombardment of Beirut and southern Lebanon intensified, Newsday reporter Matt McAllester and I entered Lebanon from the northern border with Syria and eventually settled in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, then a ghost town as it remained under siege by Israeli Army jets and unmaned drones firing Hellfire missiles indiscriminately. This photograph was taken in the Lebanese border town of Aita Chaab on the first day of a second and final cease fire between the Israeli Army and Hezbollah guerrillas. As we entered the village we found scenes of massive destruction, evidence of the heavy shelling that took place there. Amid the destruction local residents emerging from their hideouts for the first time in weeks started clearing the rubble.”