Wire photographers, also known as agency photographers, are the professionals stationed at the front lines of unfolding events. They spend weeks away from home, tracking incidents around the globe, documenting stories of varying significance, from the opening of an exhibition to a major natural disaster or a war conflict. This has been the norm for award-winning photographers in previous years. However, this year has been different. The tragic reality of journalists and photographers falling victim to the Syrian war has drastically reduced the number of professionals typically covering such events. Consequently, international media have had to rely more than ever on alternative sources. The war’s narrative has become a blend of government and anti-regime sources, as well as independent photographers, many of whom lack reporting experience. Medical staff, rescue crews, and even teachers have turned into information conduits via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp, while some agencies have employed locals to provide a snapshot of the situation.
TIME has frequently spotlighted such photographers, who work tirelessly to document this brutal conflict. Despite taking significant risks and suffering personal losses, they capture the images we see in the international media. Their work is historic. Their photographs are evidence. Among them is Mohammed Badra, a photographer with the European Pressphoto Agency based in Douma, a Damascus suburb now under rebel control. This year, Badra was named photographer of the year, an accolade previously held by Greek photographer Angelos Tzortzinis.
Badra, 26, lives under siege in his hometown by the Syrian government. When conditions permit, he also covers neighbouring areas controlled by the resistance. With a family traumatized by the war, he has witnessed its atrocities and devastating impacts on local life. For the emotion he conveys and the significance of his work, for his skills and dedication in the face of adversity, Mohammed Badra is TIME’s choice for the 2016 Wire Photographer of the Year.
Badra was born and raised in Douma, a suburb just 20 minutes from Damascus in times of peace. In 2009, he began studying architecture, pursuing his dream, but abandoned it two years later when what began as a revolution escalated into open conflict. His friends were arrested without justification, and death became a daily reality. Badra started taking pictures in 2012, when he became a correspondent for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Initially, he photographed the ruined buildings and markets, but soon he was capturing images in the group’s medical centre, during rescue operations, and beyond. Badra started his career with Reuters the following year, and in 2015, he joined the EPA.
His primary interest lies in the human aspect of war. “I try to focus on civilians and the minute human details,” says Badra. He also zeroes in on the littlest victims of this war. As per the United Nations, about 500,000 children inhabit 16 areas across Syria that are under siege. Badra has spent time in an underground amusement park where dozens of children play and sing, and in devastated schools and hospitals where children lie dazed, injured, or even dead following airstrikes. “Children are in the direst situation: they have no future, no present, only a past filled with blood and bombs,” Badra remarks. “When I see a child smiling, it feels wonderful. It’s a priceless image that brings a smile to my face too.”
There have been moments, Badra recalls, when it was emotionally challenging to document what he was witnessing and hearing. This was the case with a young boy killed in a bombing, his neighbor who tried to extinguish the fire in his bombed house using cups of water, and a man suffering from kidney failure who couldn’t be treated due to a shortage of medicine.
