Ashley Gilbertson (born 22 January 1978) is an Australian photographer. He is known for his images of the Iraq War and the effects of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on returning veterans and their families. Gilbertson is a member of

VII Photo Agency VII Photo Agency is an international photo agency wholly owned and governed by its membership. History The photographer owned agency was originally conceived by Gary Knight and John Stanmeyer. They were subsequently joined by Alexandra Boulat, ...

. In 2004 Gilbertson won the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award from the Overseas Press Club for his photographic reportage on the Battle for Fallujah.

Early life and education

Born in Melbourne,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Gilbertson started his career at thirteen taking pictures of skateboarders. After graduating secondary school, he was mentored by Filipino photographer Emmanuel Santos, and later Masao Endo in the Japanese highlands.

Career

While based in Australia, Gilbertson worked on socially driven photo essays including on drug addiction in Melbourne and war zones in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. In 1999 he photographed Kosovar refugees in Australia. For the next three years Gilbertson's work focused on

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

issues around the world. In 2002, Gilbertson travelled to the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq. Shortly thereafter, President George W. Bush made a case for war in Iraq, and Gilbertson travelled back to cover the story at the beginning of 2003. His work was published widely. In 2004, ''The New York Times'' offered Gilberston and their senior writer, Dexter Filkins, an embed with the 1/8 Marines. Gilbertson continued to cover Iraq on contract for '' The New York Times'' until 2008. A photographic memoir of his time there entitled ''Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War'' was published in 2007. In March 2009, he became a member of the

's VII Network, and in 2011 he became a full member. Gilbertson's book ''Bedrooms of the Fallen'' (2014) consists of panoramic black and white photographs of the bedrooms left behind by 40 U.S., Canadian, and European servicemen and women—the number of soldiers in a platoon.

Publications

* ''21 Days to Baghdad: Photos and Dispatches from the Battlefield.'' '' Time'', 2003. . * ''Witness Iraq: A War Journal.'' PowerHouse, 2003. * ''Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain.'' University of Chicago Press, 2006. * ''Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War.'' University of Chicago Press, 2007. . * ''Bedrooms of the Fallen.'' University of Chicago Press, 2014. . With a foreword by Philip Gourevitch.

Awards

* 2001 – Leica/CCP Documentary Award ( Melbourne) *One of his images from the invasion of Iraq was included in '' Time'' magazine's 'Pictures of the Year'. * 2004 – Included in ''

Photo District News ''Photo District News'' (or ''PDN'') was an American monthly trade publication for professional photographers. ''PDN'' was first published in 1980. The publication took its name from New York City's photo district, an area of photo businesses tha ...

'' '30 under 30' * 2004 – Publisher's Award, '' The New York Times'' * 2004 – Robert Capa Gold Medal, Overseas Press Club (

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) (winner) * 2004 – Photographer of the Year, National Photo Awards ( Minnesota) (winner) * 2005 – Joop Swart Masterclass, World Press Photo ( Amsterdam) (participant) * 2008 – The Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction * 2009 – ''Photo District News,'' Photo Annual * 2010 –

Aaron Siskind Aaron Siskind (December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject. He was closely involved with, if ...

Foundation, grant recipient * 2011 – National Magazine Award, Photography, for his series ''Bedrooms of the Fallen'', published as a work in progress in '' The New York Times Magazine''. * 2014 – ''Photo District News,'' Photo Annual

References

External links

*
Ashley Gilbertson collection
at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History ''(Photographic History collection)''
Website for the book ''Whiskey Tango Foxtrot''
including a video interview with Gilbertson

Last Photographs
with Joanna Gilbertson {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbertson, Ashley 1978 births Living people Australian photojournalists War photographers Photographers from Melbourne American photojournalists Photography in Iraq VII Photo Agency photographers