David P. Gilkey, a former Detroit Free Press photographer, devoted his life to telling the world’s most difficult stories through the lens of his camera. Ten years ago, Gilkey went on an assignment that would cost him his life.
Over the course of his career, Gilkey documented major global crises — from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the aftermath of natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies in Haiti and Gaza.
Gilkey died on June 5, 2016 while on assignment for NPR, traveling in an armored Humvee in southern Afghanistan when his convoy came under attack by rocket propelled grenades. NPR interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna also died in the attack.
Gilkey, who was 50 at the time of his death, joined the Free Press in 1996. Over the next 11 years, his work took him to South Africa as well as to conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda, Darfur and Kosovo. When the Iraq war began, he was embedded with the first troops to invade and transmitted the first grainy, night-vision photographs of those troops crossing the border.
“He was one of the most thoughtful photographers I have ever known,” Nancy Andrews, former Free Press managing editor for digital media, said following his death in 2016. “On the exterior you had this war photographer who was willing to put himself at great risk to tell stories, and on the other hand you have this really gentle teddy bear.” She laughed: “I don’t think he’d want to be known as a teddy bear.”
His legacy lives on through the indelible images he left behind — a selection of which can be viewed above, in a gallery that honors the depth and humanity of his storytelling, right here in Michigan.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: David P. Gilkey, former Free Press photographer, captured Michigan history before tragic 2016 death
Reporting by Elissa Robinson, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Elissa Robinson, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
