NPR Photographer, Interpreter Killed In Afghanistan

Enlarge this image toggle caption Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal

Updated 3:15 a.m. ET

Enlarge this image toggle caption Monika Evstatieva/NPR Monika Evstatieva/NPR

David Gilkey, an NPR photojournalist who chronicled pain and beauty in war and conflict, was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday along with NPR's Afghan interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna.

David and Zabihullah were on assignment for the network traveling with an Afghan army unit. They were in an armored Humvee driven by a soldier of the Afghan National Army. All three were killed after the Humvee was hit by rocket propelled grenades in an apparent ambush.

NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva were also in the convoy, traveling in a separate vehicle. They were not injured.

Tom reports that when the journalists' remains arrived by helicopter at Camp Shorab in Helmand Province — where the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division has a training mission — an honor guard of "dozens and dozens" of U.S. soldiers stood at attention and saluted.

David was 50 and Zabihullah, who for years also worked as a photographer, was 38.

David was considered one of the best photojournalists in the world — honored with a raft of awards including a George Polk Award in 2010, a national News and Documentary Emmy in 2007 and dozens of distinctions from the White House News Photographers Association, including 2011 Still Photographer of the Year.

It is fair to say that David witnessed some of humanity's most challenging moments: He covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He covered the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He covered the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa. He covered the devastating earthquake in Haiti, famine in Somalia and most recently the Ebola epidemic in Liberia.

His images were haunting — amid the rubble, he found beauty; amid war, he found humanity.

Back in 2010, after he covered the earthquake in Haiti, he talked about his craft. The camera, he said, made things easier.

"It's not like you put the camera to your face and therefore it makes what you're seeing OK, but certainly you can put yourself in a zone," David said. "It's hard, but you can't get caught up in it and become part of it. You still need to maintain your state of mind that you are helping tell this story."

Hide caption A little girl jumps across a flooded field containing the sewage runoff from the Mais Gate Camp after heavy rains in Port-au-Prince in 2010. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Alex Mertulus, age 10, the son of Magarette Brutus, stands in the mud in the Mais Gate Camp after heavy rains flooded the area in the middle of the night in Port-au-Prince. Both Magarette and her son Alex are fighting a loosing battle of moving around to different IDP camps trying to find a place were they can live. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption A little boy tries to get his kite in to the air at Camp Corail in Croiz de Bouquets outside of Port-au-Prince Haiti on May 4, 2010. Internally displaced people living in makeshift camps in the city were moved to the Corail camp in an attempt to give the people a safer and more permanent living situation. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption After the quake of 2010, a man stands on a rooftop yelling out for any sign of his missing relatives in a Port au Prince neighborhood. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption A man carrying a shotgun walks through a collapsed building while trying to keep looters at bay on the streets outside in the commercial district of downtown Port-au-Prince on January 18, 2010. Looters and scavengers ransacked destroyed buildings with little police presence. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Lance Cpl. Jake Romo does physical therapy at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif. He lost both legs in an explosion in Sangin, Afghanistan, in February 2011, while serving with the 3/5 Marines. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Amy Murray at home with her daughter Harper in Oceanside, Calif. Her husband, Capt. Patrick Murray, with the Darkhorse battalion, returned home from Afghanistan, in April 2011; 25 Marines from his unit did not. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Josue Barron lost his left leg and eye in Sangin, Afghanistan, while serving with the 3/5 Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif. He now has a glass eye which is emblazoned with the 3/5 insignia. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Men watch the fires of a cremation along the banks of the Yamuna River against the backdrop of the Wazirabad Barrage and floating industrial waste in May 2016. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR

Hide caption Earlier this year, a woman walks between two of the tents that house the hospital wards at the U.N. Protection of Civilians site near Bentiu, South Sudan, home to more than 120,000 people. Most of the camp's residents are women and children. Previous Next David Gilkey/NPR 1 of 10 i View slideshow

His craft, he said, was about more than journalism.

"It's not just reporting. It's not just taking pictures," he said. "It's, 'Do those visuals, do the stories, do they change somebody's mind enough to take action?'"

In an email to staff, Michael Oreskes, NPR's vice president for news, said David died pursuing that commitment.

"As a man and as a photojournalist, David brought out the humanity of all those around him," Michael said. "He let us see the world and each other through his eyes."

toggle caption Zabi Tamanna/AFP/Getty Images

Keith Jenkins, the general manager for digital at the National Geographic Society who edited David at NPR, said he and David talked a lot about the dangers of the work David was doing and how much longer he could keep doing it.

"Ultimately, he felt it was really important to tell those stories and to tell them to a society that can very often forget that we have people in harm's way on a daily basis," Keith said.

David also understood those risks.

"It's a very hard thing to put into words, the peace you sort of make with what you're gonna be doing," David said. "I'm not saying you walk into these situations and you're fatalistic about it but you also are preparing and making decisions based on the sort of level of threat that is there."

Zabihullah, who was known as Zabi, worked as a photojournalist for the Chinese news agency Xinhua. More recently, he wrote for Turkey's Anadolu News Agency. Zabihullah kept a tick-tock on the country. He wrote the big news — when a new Afghani president was sworn in — but also covered the daily attacks and drone strikes that killed militants and civilians.

NPR's Philip Reeves recruited Zabihullah to NPR. He called him a "great colleague."

"He was a lovely man, with a great eye for a story and deep wisdom about his country," Philip said. "He clearly loved his family."

Zabihullah leaves behind three young children.

Secretary of State John Kerry released the following statement: