Today’s daily Photojournalism Links collection highlights Marcus Bleasdale‘s work from Central African Republic for an in-depth account of the country’s spiral into bloodshed by Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, with whom the photographer has covered the country since November 2013. The most recent conflict erupted after the now-disbanded Séléka coalition of Muslim rebels ousted the Christian president in early 2013 and began a vicious campaign of looting, torture and murder, mostly against non-Muslims. Two days of street violence in December 2013 left hundreds dead and shocked the global community into action, with French and African peacekeepers sent in to restore security. But the retaliation by armed militia groups known as anti-balaka bred even more death and, in many cases, targetted the Muslim minority, prompting an exodus into the eastern region and neighboring countries. Bleasdale’s images provide an important and harrowing documentation of turmoil that has, in recent months, largely been ignored.
Lucas Jackson: U.S. Military’s Last Days of Combat in Afghanistan (TIME.com) The Reuters photographer documented the final days of the U.S.’s official combat campaign in the country
The Influencers: Lynsey Addario (American Photo) The magazine features Addario as one of the five most influential photographers of the last 25 years
2014 The Year in Pictures (The New York Times) See also the Lens blog article, Choosing the Pictures of the Year, in which photo editors Meagham Looram and Jeffrey Scales explain the thinking behind the selection
Cartier-Bresson’s classic is back – but his Decisive Moment has passed (The Guardian) Sean O’Hagan writes somewhat critically about the re-printing of Cartier-Bresson’s seminal book, six decades on
