Motaz Azaiza
@motaz_azaiza
Usually, every Thursday I post photos to highlight photographers I admire. So far, it’s mostly been vintage shots from great photographers of the 20th century. Today, I’m doing something different—featuring the work of Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza.
Motaz is an award-winning photographer, documenting the war in Gaza and sharing images almost daily on his Instagram page. He’s part of a long tradition of war correspondents—photographers like Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, and W. Eugene Smith—whose work was published in magazines like Life and Time, bringing the harsh realities of war into people's homes.
But unlike those earlier photographers, Motaz doesn’t have a magazine backing him. He’s posting his images almost daily on Instagram, showing the devastation and the toll this war is taking on his people.
This first photo, taken by another photographer, shows Motaz helping a woman cross a destroyed street. I wanted to start by showing an image of him in action.
There was a time when powerful photos like these were front and center—on magazine covers, in newspapers, shaping how the public saw the realities of war. That doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. If you’re not seeking out these images yourself, it’s easy to miss what’s really happening.
These photos remind how the US news media does not accurately or fully report on the atrocities happening in Gaza. I watch the French news every day and see what is not reported here at home. It is worse than one can imagine, far worse than what we see on the news here.