Category: Tearsheets

Occupy Wall Street – October 14

The dramatic showdown between thousands of demonstrators and NYC Mayor Bloomberg was averted at the 11th hour when faced with overwhelming force, the Mayor decided the inhabitants of Zuccotti Park had sufficiently tidied themselves up, at least for the time being, and Occupation Wall Street continues. Feeling their power and wanting to celebrate, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets and sidewalks of lower Manhattan Friday morning. In the end, the creativity and sheer numbers of the demonstrators was too much for the NYPD. A few scenes from Friday morning.

There was at least one grotesque moment of police rage captured here See 1.41 seconds. And I noticed two occasions when plain clothes suit and tie higher ups, with no visible identification or badge number, bolted from the crowd and got physical.

Saturday October 15, Occupation Wall Street moves to Times Square.
All photos ©Nina Berman 2011, All Rights Reserved

Guernica Magazine: Seeing Double: Matt Black and Natalie Abbassi

Work by Matt Black and Natalie Abbassi, two inspiring photographers working at opposite ends of the documentary spectrum were the subjects of my guest Arts Editor piece in this month’s Guernica Magazine. I hope you find their work as exciting as I do.
Photo ©Natalie Abbassi

Virginia Tech revisited

Six months after 32 people were gunned down in a campus building at Virginia Tech, I was commissioned with writer Ariel Leve to visit the university. She wrote an excellent story for the Sunday Times Magazine Some of my photographs are below. Plans must already be underway for a Tuscon, Arizona memorial. More than places of remembrance, memorials encourage closure and seem to announce by their presence, never again. But of course there will be another Columbine and another Virginia Tech and another Tuscon, Arizona, and knowing that, looking at these pictures again, I realize how perfectly the memorial melted into the landscape. What remained out of place and thoroughly unhinged, were the survivors. Photographs ©Nina Berman/NOOR. All rights reserved.

Salee Allawe – Collateral Damage

On November 7, 2006 in Hasswa, Iraq, nine-year old Salee Allawe was playing hopscotch outside her home with her brother, cousin and some friends when US mlitary jets fired three missiles, apparently at passenger vehicles. One missile landed where the children were playing, killing Salee’s brother and cousin and taking both of Salee’s legs. Cole Miller, one of the most dedicated humanitarians I have met, and founder of nomorevictims.org, arranged for Salee and her father to go to Greenville, South Carolina where volunteers cared for her and doctors fitted her with a new pair of legs. I photographed her trip there in 2007. Salee’s now a young woman, has outgrown those legs and needs to return. Here are some photos of Salee three years ago and information about her on the NoMoreVictims website. All photos © Nina Berman. The entire story can be seen at NOOR Images