Robert King (born May 25, 1969) is an American independent photo and video journalist. He has covered conflict areas and war zones since 1991. King was the subject of the 2008 documentary ''Blood Trail'', re-released in 2009 as ''

Shooting Robert King '' Shooting Robert King'' is a 2008 documentary film directed by Richard Parry. It documents photojournalist Robert King over 15 years and through 3 different war zones. The film splices footage from his time working in war zones with footage o ...

''.

Early life

King was born in Memphis, the son of music promoter and record company executive John King. His childhood was shaped by "a household of drug addiction and alcoholism," as well as dyslexia, which resulted in him repeating multiple grades in school. While a student at the Hyde School in

Bath, Maine Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,766 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its ...

, he ran away to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and fell deeper into drug use. His grandmother encouraged him to return to the school and focus on his photography, which he did, graduating in 1989. He then attended the Pratt Institute, where he got his first photo publication in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as a junior.

Career

After graduation from the Pratt Institute, King became a war photojournalist in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, with later work in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, Chechnya,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, Rwanda, and Syria. His first newspaper cover photo was for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in 1993. He was the only photojournalist on the ground during the fall of Grozny. His photographs were used for covers of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'', and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''. In 2008, a documentary covering his activities over the course of 15 years was released. ''Blood Trail'', later known as ''Shooting Robert King'', premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. In 2012, King became the director of photography for

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); ...

. His work at Vice is most closely associated with his coverage of software pioneer and fugitive

John McAfee John David McAfee ( ; 18 September 1945 – 23 June 2021) was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States ...

, which has been criticized as being too friendly and inadvertently aiding in McAfee's arrest in Guatemala, an allegation King denies. In 2015, '' BuzzFeed News'' reporting placed the blame for McAfee's capture on ''Vice'' editor-in-chief, Jonathan Smith, and found that King had not been responsible. In 2014, King moved to Berlin, Germany and became the creative director of video for Bild.de As of June 2018, he operates a farm in Tennessee and was serving as McAfee's official documentarian prior to McAfee's death. His work is extensively featured in the 2022 documentary '' Running With the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Robert Living people American male journalists American war correspondents People from Memphis, Tennessee Journalists from Tennessee 1969 births