Thomas Dworzak (born 1972) is a German photographer. He has produced a number of books and is a member of

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David Seymour (photographer), Davi ...

. He was President of Magnum from 2017 until 2020. Dworzak won a

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

award in 2001 and in 2018 received the Hood Medal from the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

in the UK.

Life and work

Dworzak was born in Kötzting, Germany and grew up in Cham in the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is con ...

. He decided to become a photographer at an early age, traveling to Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, and Yugoslavia while still in high school. Dworzak lived in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

, Georgia, from 1993 until 1998 where he documented the conflicts in

Chechnya Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...

, Karabakh and Abkhazia. Whilst there he worked on a project about the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

region and its people, the impact years of war had on the region, and the interplay between

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

and the typical imagery of the Caucasus. This was published as the book ''Kavkaz''. A few months after the start of the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...

in 2001, Dworzak travelled to

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...

with

Jon Lee Anderson Jon Lee Anderson (born January 15, 1957) is an American biographer, author, investigative reporter, war correspondent, and staff writer for ''The New Yorker'', reporting from war zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Uganda, Palestine, El Salvador, Ir ...

on an assignment for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. Whilst there he found and bought a collection of retouched portrait photographs of

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

soldiers from photo studios, which he used for the book ''Taliban''. The pictures show a

campy Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aes ...

esthetics, close to the

Gay movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...

in California or a

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the ...

film. For a decade after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

Dworzak covered the ensuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and its impact on US politics. He produced the work for his book ''M*A*S*H* Iraq'', examining the daily lives of medivac teams in Iraq, whilst embedded with them. The book includes screenshots of the TV series ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. The ...

'' overlaid with subtitles. An assignment from ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'' to

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

to cover the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

became a project called ''Beyond Sochi'', which was published in 2014 as both a physical and electronic book. In the book, Dworzak aimed to explore Sochi in the context of the Olympics and the preparation for it. Dworzak became a Magnum Photos nominee in 2000 and a member in 2004. In 2022 Thomas Dworzak was the president of the jury of the "

Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents The Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents (French: Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie des correspondants de guerre), previously the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents, is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Ba ...

Publications

Publications by Dworzak

*''Taliban.'' **London: Trolley, 2003. . **Frankfurt: Hans-Jürgen Maurer, 2003. . *''*M*A*S*H Iraq.'' London: Trolley, 2007. . *''Kavkaz.'' Amsterdam: Schilt, 2011. . *''Beyond Sochi.'' Paris: Seriti;

, 2014. . *''Khidi - The Bridge.'' Paris:

, 2021. .

Publications with contributions by Dworzak

*''Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal'' = ქართულიგაზაფხული მაგნუმი ს დღიურები. London:

Chris Boot Chris Boot (born 27 May 1960) is a British photography curator, book publisher, and has worked in a variety of other roles related to photography. He was director of London’s Photo Co-op, director of the London and New York offices of Magnum Pho ...

, New York: Magnum, 2009. . Introduction by Wendell Steavenson, photographs by various Magnum photographers.. *''A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive.'' Munich:

Prestel Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maximu ...

; New York, Paris, London, Tokyo: Magnum, 2010. . *''Europa – An introduction and guide for Refugees and Migrants.'' Barcelona: Arab Fund for Arts and Culture;

Magnum Foundation Magnum Foundation is a non-profit, photographic foundation located in New York City with a mission to expand diversity and creativity in documentary photography. History and mission Magnum Foundation was founded in 2007, in the midst of the c ...

; Al-liquindoi, 2016. . Text in Arabic, Farsi, English, and French.A page about ''Europa'' i
here within the Magnum Photos web site
with links to download it for free. *''Home.'' Tokyo: Magnum Photos Tokyo, 2018. .

Awards

*2001: First Prize, Spot News Story, 2001 World Press Photo Awards,

, Amsterdam. *2003: Award of Excellence, U.S. News & World Report, sixtieth Pictures of the Year International Competition,

Pictures of the Year International Pictures of the Year International (POYi) is a professional development program for visual journalists run on a non-profit basis by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. POYi began as an annual competition f ...

, for ''Chechnya–Girl With Balloons''. *2004: Award of Excellence, Magazine Division / General News Reporting, sixty first Pictures of the Year International Competition, Pictures of the Year International, for ''Chained,'' for ''

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, to ...

'' magazine. *2018: Honorary Fellowship of the

, Bath

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dworzak, Thomas 1972 births Living people Magnum photographers German photojournalists War photographers 20th-century German photographers 21st-century German photographers People from Bad Kötzting Photographers from Bavaria