Fearless Reporters: Remembering the Female Journalists
Artist Judith Larsen depicts slain journalists in" Frontline Heroines"
Words, photos, videos & concept by Jennifer Karchmer
All oil paintings shown here by Judith Larsen
Artist Judith Larsen depicts slain journalists in" Frontline Heroines"
Words, photos, videos & concept by Jennifer Karchmer
All oil paintings shown here by Judith Larsen
Anja Niedringhaus (right) with Kathy Gannon, both experienced AP war correspondents. (Source: Winnipeg Free Press).
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Editor's Note: On April 4, 2014 AP photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was killed by an Afghan policeman who opened fire on her and fellow AP journalist Kathy Gannon, 60, who was wounded. The journalists were in a town called Khost, covering Afghanistan's presidential elections. Through an email, artist Judith Larsen said: "As of today I sadly have another heroine to add to the Frontline Heroines series." Larsen's exhibit "Frontline Heroines" will be featured at the University of Washington School of Social Work from Aug. 25-Dec. 12, 2014. The gallery is located on the first floor of the School of Social work at 4101 15th Ave. NE, 98105, adjacent to the UW campus in Seattle. |
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Judith Larsen considers herself a journalist, but when she started learning about reporters dying on the job -- she became an artist, again. She turned to her oil painting, a creative outlet she had put on the back burner for years.
"I'm a news junkie and when I started hearing about journalists being killed, I did some research," she said. Reviewing online news reports,she began appreciating the dangers journalists face in conflict and war zones. "Then, I wondered, 'How about the women who are getting knocked off?'" and she began her quest into learning their stories. To express her outrage, anger and fascination in reporters' deaths – some of which failed to make mainstream news – she began painting again. Scouring the Internet for images and studying still photos taken from online videos, Larsen put paint to canvas. For more than two years, she would finish her early morning radio broadcast shift doing rushhour traffic and news reports, and hole up in her tiny art studio perched above Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. The fruits of those hours in her studio has become "Frontline Heroines," a 20-piece exhibit displayed last fall at the Frances Anderson Center in Edmonds, Wash., a suburb 20 miles north of Seattle. |
(Above) Judith Larsen painted 20 portraits of female journalists and human rights workers who have died on and off the job. "Frontline Heroines" was shown at the Frances Anderson Center in Edmonds, Wash. in Sept-Oct. 2013. (Below video) Larsen using linseed oil as an artistic expression in her depiction Iranian student Nedā Āghā-Soltān.
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Click here to go to the photo gallery "Frontline Heroines" by Judith Larsen
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(Above video) Larsen discusses her portrait of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in Moscow in 2006.
Veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin: "WHY do I cover wars? I have been asked this often in the past week. It is a difficult question to answer. I did not set out to be a war correspondent. It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extrems, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars – declared and undeclared." -- from her New York Times editorial, April 22, 2001. Sources for further information on press freedom:
Committee to Protect Journalists Doha Centre for Media Freedom International News Safety Institute International Women's Day Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) Reporters Without Borders WBEZ Worldview: Marking the International Day to End Impunity (Nov. 23) |
On a Friday morning in October 2013, Larsen met me at the Center for an interview. While we walked among the pieces, she pointed out nuances in her paintings and shared the inspiration that led to her work.
"These women gave their lives in the name of freedom of speech," she said, as we looked at several pieces in a large display case and walked to the main exhibit room where the remaining were arranged. Larsen had some false starts. In an attempt to get the paintings just right, she ripped up her canvas and started from scratch for a few of the pieces. The portraits of Anna Politkovskaya and Marie Colvin are particularly important to her as she felt a responsibility to keep the women's stories alive. "It was overwhelming at times," Larsen said. "I felt like they were saying to me, "We're counting on you," to tell our stories. Politkovskaya, a fearless Russian journalist who regularly received death threats, was shot and killed in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006. She had reported for the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" from Chechnya and investigated wrongdoings of the Russian state. [See video at left]. Colvin, a veteran war correspondent originally from Long Island, NY, was killed by shellfire while on assignment in Homs, Syria in February 2012. She was 56. One of Colvin's last broadcasts was a CNN interview on Feb. 22, 2012. "I saw her on CNN being interviewed by Anderson Cooper. Then I started painting," Larsen said. Colvin, also a fearless journalist who pursued the human angle to war stories, wore an eyepatch on her left eye due to a grenade blast on April 16, 2001 while covering conflict in Sri Lanka. In fact, Colvin penned this New York Times editorial a week after her injury. It begins: "‘The shot hit me. Blood poured from my eye – I felt a profound sadness that I was going to die." |
""These women gave their lives in the name of freedom of speech," Judith Larsen, artist & journalist
Marie Colvin was a veteran war correspondent who died in 2012 covering the war in Syria.
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Larsen used this photo to help her depict Marie Colvin in the portrait seen at left. (Photo of Marie Colvin, from Vanity Fair "Remembering War Correspondent Marie Colvin", Feb. 22, 2012. Photo credit The Sunday Times/AP Photo. )
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According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), the international nonprofit that protects the press, 76 journalists were killed on the job in 2013. Syria was considered the deadliest nation for journalists with 11 deaths that year. But 2012 was a particularly brutal year for media workers in conflict zones with 88 deaths reported worldwide, according to RWB. Somalia was the most dangerous for journalists in 2012. RWB conducts fact-finding missions and relies on first-hand reports from correspondents in more than 150 countries worldwide to determine which journalist deaths are work-related.
Another media advocacy group that tracks journalist deaths, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) based in New York, reports similar numbers last year with 70 journalists deaths considered "motive confirmed." Through its investigation, CPJ determines whether a journalist was killed "in direct reprisal for his or her work; was killed in crossfire during combat situations; or was killed while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as coverage of a street protest." The photo gallery of Larsen's portraits show many female journalists who were gunned down, murdered and assassinated for their work uncovering important stories that otherwise would be censored. Most alarming about journalist deaths is the impunity related to the killings. In other words, murdering a journalist is a form of censorship and according to CPJ 9 out of 10 cases go unpunished. CPJ has launched a global campaign "Speak Justice: Voices Against Impunity," and UNESCO has declared November 2 the International Day to End Impunity. Meantime, threats against women working in media are also troublesome. INSI (International News Safety Institute) recently reported findings from a survey on women journalists' experiences on the frontlines. INSI found "nearly two-thirds of respondents had experienced some form of intimidation, threats or abuse in relation to their work, and that the majority of these threats occurred in the work place." The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) at the United Nations in Geneva and New York helped administer the survey and create the final 40-page report: "Violence and Harassment against Women in the News Media." [You can read the the full report in English here: http://newssafety.org/uploads/IWMF.FINALA.PDF] Through the portraits, Larsen tries to capture, even on a small scale, the women's humanity and emotions -- what has led to their drive in telling important stories of war, conflict and culture. While her exhibit is back at her home in Edmonds, Wash., she is looking into applying for financial grants to help transport and show the artwork at larger institutions, such as the Smithsonian in Wash, DC., to keep these women's stories alive. If you missed the exhibit last year, "Frontline Heroines" will be shown at the University of Washington School of Social Work from Aug. 25-Dec. 12, 2014. Published by Jennifer Karchmer April 5, 2014
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