Tigray Defenense Force fighters shelter from the rain while guarding captured Ethiopian government soldiers at a prisoner of war camp in the mountains of Tigray in June, 2021. Some 6,000 government troops were captured by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, during fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. Fighting broke out in Tigray in November, 2020 when the government accused the TPLF of attacking military bases across the region, which the party denied. The civil war has drawn in neighboring Eritrea on the side of the Ethiopian government, and has been marked by atrocities, starvation, and allegations of war crimes by both sides. The government declared victory three weeks into the conflict when it took control of the regional capital Mekelle, but the Tigrayan guerrilla army known as the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) retook Mekelle and most of Tigray at the end of June, after the government suffered a cascade of battlefield loses. Thousands of people have died in the fighting; around 2 million have been displaced and more than 5 million rely on food aid. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Tigray Defenense Force fighters survey the burning wreckage of an Ethiopian Air Force Plane downed a few hours earlier by the rebel group south of the city of Mekelle in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region on June 23, 2021. TDF forces said they shot down the Ethiopian Air Force's only C-130E Hercules transport plane, which was donated to Ethiopia by the United States in 2018. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Captured Ethiopian government soldiers at a prisoner of war camp in the mountains of Tigray in June, 2021. Some 6,000 government troops were captured by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, during fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region. Fighting broke out in Tigray in November, 2020 when the government accused the TPLF of attacking military bases across the region, which the party denied. The civil war has drawn in neighboring Eritrea on the side of the Ethiopian government, and has been marked by atrocities, starvation, and allegations of war crimes by both sides. The government declared victory three weeks into the conflict when it took control of the regional capital Mekelle, but the Tigrayan guerrilla army known as the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) retook Mekelle and most of Tigray at the end of June, after the government suffered a cascade of battlefield loses. Thousands of people have died in the fighting; around 2 million have been displaced and more than 5 million rely on food aid. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Fighters from the Tigray Defence Forces rest aboard a pick-up truck outside the regional capital Mekelle in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region , on June 29, 2021. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A fighter from the Tigray Defence Forces stands by a crashed military vehicle southwest of the regional capital Mekelle in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, on June 29, 2021. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Curious residents and a street vendor selling material look on as models (L-R) Diarra Ndiaye, Ndeye Fatou Mbaye and Malezi Sakho wear outfits by Senegalese designer Adama Paris in the Medina neighbourhood of Senegal's capital, Dakar, December 15, 2018. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Models wear creations by Senegalese designer and Dakar Fashion Week organiser Adama Paris during an outdoor show on December 12, 2020 just outside Dakar, Senegal. With Senegal's low incidence of Covid-19, Dakar's marquee fashion event looked markedly more normal than its counterparts in other global capitals, whose fashion weeks were heavily curtailed or canceled. Economically, 2020 was the fashion industry’s worst year in history, with profits falling 93% from 2019, according to McKinsey & Company. Sustainability, which was on McKinsey's list of the most important challenges for the first time, is evolving from a tick-box exercise into a transformational feature. Sustainability was also the theme for the 2020 Dakar Fashion Week. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Sarah Kavuo, 15, (C) plays the trumpet in a church yard in the town of Beni in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, along with her sister Milka Kavuo, 14 (2ndR), Esther Kahindu, 16, (R), and Nema Kavira, 16, (L). The effort to stamp out this Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo — already the second largest in recorded history — is going poorly, as front-line health workers struggle against rising hostility and distrust. Despite some early success in containing the disease, in the last two to three months it has come roaring back. The number of new infections spiked in the last month, and most new patients had no immediately apparent connection to past patients, showing the disease is spreading beyond the ability of doctors to track it. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Patients await treatment in a medical room at the Central Prison, Bunia, eastern Congo. Last year, more than 50 inmates died from starvation at the prison due to lack of funds from the government, a reflection of state neglect for many of its institutions. The ICRC has since provided nutritional and health support for inmates, but prisoners only receive a single meal of gruel daily, cooked in giant vats (slides 3-4). So far this year only 5 inmates have died, with two of those deaths being related to malnutrition. Still, 40% of inmates are malnourished in a prison originally intended for 500 prisoners but now housing 1609 detainees, including 43 children. The facility also lacks sufficient water, causing hygiene problems and dehydration. Without the support do the ICRC, the grim living conditions would be “catastrophic,” according to a doctor working at the prison’s health post. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Sunday church service in the town of Drodro in eastern Congo's Ituri province. Violence has been endemic in Congo’s mineral-rich eastern regions since the official end of the civil war in 2003, but insecurity has soared in the past two years. On May 6, the government imposed a state of siege to try to end the bloodshed. A surge in attacks by armed militias and inter-communal violence in the east have killed more than 300 people since the start of the year as government troops and U.N. peacekeepers struggle to stabilize the situation. The violence has fuelled a humanitarian crisis with more than 1.6 million people displaced in Ituri out of a total population of 5.7 million people, UNICEF said in April. Some 2.8 million people there are in need of some form of emergency assistance, it said. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Customers have their hair done at a salon in the city of Bunia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, May 16, 2021. Bunia is located in Congo's Ituri province, which was put under a state of siege this month by the government, which is trying to contain a wave of violence by armed militias in the region. © Finbarr O’Reilly for Fondation Carmignac.
Ruta lost her father in a 2003 attack, in which hundreds of people were killed by militiamen. Shortly after, Ruta was attacked by militiamen. She lost consciousness as she was beaten and raped by two men. When she awoke, she limped home in shock. “On the day I gave birth, I was happy to give her life,” Ruta says of her daughter Rebecca. Rebecca grew up and was working as a cleaner to help her mother earn some extra money. In late 2020, she went to fetch water and was walking past a government army camp when an unarmed man in military uniform pushed her into the bushes and raped her. Rebecca gave birth to a baby girl. Her name is Adieri. “I hope god will protect her,” Rebecca said. Together, Ruta and Rebecca look after not only Adieri, but also Ruta’s other 8 children. They received a micro-credit loan from a Trust Fund for Victims assistance project aimed at supporting a local collective of survivors of sexual violence, but mother and daughter struggle to live off their earnings from selling charcoal at the local market. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Sister Diogena Tereshkevych (C) tells stories to comfort people displaced from eastern Ukraine inside a bomb shelter during an air raid alert in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, April 15, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Ukrainian soldiers from the 58th Brigade prepare an operation in a command bunker in the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s northeastern Donetsk region, November 5, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Members of a Ukrainian tank crew from the 42nd Brigade eat lunch in a bunker on the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, December 30, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Local residents help police and war crimes investigators exhume the body of Viktoria Volokhova, a 15-year-old girl who local residents said had been executed by Russian forces, along with seven men, six of whose bodies had been exhumed the day before from the garden of a nearby house, in the recently liberated southern Ukrainian village of Pravdyne, November 29, 2022. Eight people were killed at the house when an informant told Russian forces the civilians were passing on information to Ukrainian military sources, according to local residents. The bodies were found with some of their hands tied, their eyes blindfolded, and shot at close range in the back of the head. Afterwards the house was blown up and the bodies were later buried in a grave beside the house by a local resident. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
People jostle for food handouts in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, November 15, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A woman watches a burning oil depot that local residents said had been by a Russian mortar barrage from across the Dnipro River in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, November 19, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A Ukrainian humane drives past destroyed buildings in a town on the frontline of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, December 28, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A Steelmaker uses a probe to guide molten pig iron from a blast furnace at the Zaporistahl steel plant, owned by Metinvest, in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, November 7, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A steelmaker near a blast furnace at the Zaporistahl steel plant, owned by Metinvest, in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, November 7, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Sparks fly in front of a steelmaker holding a probe used to guide molten pig iron from a blast furnace into casts at the Zaporistahl steel plant, owned by Metinvest, in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, November 7, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Miners enter an elevator shaft at the start of a 6-hour shift at 1/3 Novogrodivska state-run coal mine, near the town of Selidove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 8, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A miner gears up in a communal changing room before a 6-hour shift 1/3 Novogrodivska state-run coal mine, near the town of Selidove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 8, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Miners work nearly half a mile underground at a private coal mine run by the DTEK energy company, in the Dobropil district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 9, 2022. The mine is under a private lease to oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Miners exit an elevator shaft at the end of a 6-hour shift at 1/3 Novogrodivska state-run coal mine, near the town of Selidove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 8, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Miners smoke before taking a shower after a 6-hour shift at 1/3 Novogrodivska state-run coal mine, near the town of Selidove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 8, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A miner smokes before taking a shower after a 6-hour shift at 1/3 Novogrodivska state-run coal mine, near the town of Selidove, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 8, 2022. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Descending through tunnels nearly half a mile underground at a private coal mine run by the DTEK energy company, in the Dobropil district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, June 9, 2022. The mine is under a private lease to oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Nino Oclin, a 33-year-old farmer (C), sits by a campfire with three youths he has hired to help him protect his small family vanilla plantation from thieves near the remote mountain village of Mandena in Madagascar's northeastern Sava region. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Pascale Rasafindakoto, 44, a “commissionaire,” or street trader, lies at home in bed near two of his sons, in Sambava in Madagascar's northeastern Sava region. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Spectators watch fighters during a tournament of traditional Moraingy bare-knuckle fighting in Andapa in Madagascar's northeastern Sava region. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Loading sacks of cassava at a market in the northern Nigerian city of Yole, September 16, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Crew member Mark Harding discards unwanted fish from a catch aboard the trawler Eblana on the Irish Sea, October 22, 2023. A decade ago there were dozens of trawlers operating out of my home fishing port of Howth. The Eblana is now the only one left. © Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
Cleaning the deck aboard the trawler Eblana on the Irish Sea, October 24, 2023. A decade ago there were dozens of trawlers operating out of my home fishing port of Howth. The Eblana is now the only one left. © Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
Crew member Mohammed Ghitany, 38, aboard the fishing vessel Aquila on its final voyage, April 4, 2023. The Aquila is being scrapped as part of Ireland’s controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters. Already hammered by overfishing, the increased price of fuel and energy, inflation, geopolitics, and climate change—the Irish fishing industry is now at risk of collapse due to changes in trade rules triggered by Brexit—potentially wiping out entire coastal communities, traditional ways of life, and a pillar of the country’s culture and local economies. Indigenous Irish fishermen openly talk about being “the last generation to fish our seas.” © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A crew member hoses down the deck aboard the fishing vessel Aquila on the ship’s final voyage, April 4, 2023. The Aquila is being scrapped as part of Ireland’s controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters. Already hammered by overfishing, the increased price of fuel and energy, inflation, geopolitics, and climate change—the Irish fishing industry is now at risk of collapse due to changes in trade rules triggered by Brexit—potentially wiping out entire coastal communities, traditional ways of life, and a pillar of the country’s culture and local economies. Indigenous Irish fishermen openly talk about being “the last generation to fish our seas.” © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Stripping away the contents of the fishing vessel Aquila after the ship’s final voyage, at the Irish port of Baltimore, April 5, 2023. The Aquila is being scrapped as part of Ireland’s controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters. Already hammered by overfishing, the increased price of fuel and energy, inflation, geopolitics, and climate change—the Irish fishing industry is now at risk of collapse due to changes in trade rules triggered by Brexit—potentially wiping out entire coastal communities, traditional ways of life, and a pillar of the country’s culture and local economies. Indigenous Irish fishermen openly talk about being “the last generation to fish our seas.” © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Teenagers perform during a night of traditional music at the The Fleet Inn at Irish fishing port of Killlybegs, April 6, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
Cleaning nets from the fishing vessel Sea Quest, at the Irish seaport of Killlybegs, April 6, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly.
A scrapyard in New Ross where newly decommissioned fishing vessels are torn apart, October 26, 2023. The fleet of Irish fishing vessels is scheduled to undergo a controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters.© Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
A scrapyard in New Ross where newly decommissioned fishing vessels are torn apart, October 26, 2023. The fleet of Irish fishing vessels is scheduled to undergo a controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters. © Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
A scrapyard in New Ross where newly decommissioned fishing vessels are torn apart, October 26, 2023. The fleet of Irish fishing vessels is scheduled to undergo a controversial government decommissioning scheme to reduce by about 30% the number of Irish fishing boats operating in local waters. © Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
Seagulls trailing the trawler Eblana on the Irish Sea, October 24, 2023. A decade ago there were dozens of trawlers operating out of my home fishing port of Howth. The Eblana is now the only one left. © Finbarr O’Reilly for the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
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Finbarr O’Reilly

Contributing Photographer

Finbarr O’Reilly has spent the last 20 years as an award-winning visual journalist and author working in conflict zones and complex humanitarian emergencies. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times and was the Laureate of the 2020 Carmignac Photojournalism Award, which resulted in a two-year project, two books, and multiple exhibitions about the Democratic Republic of Congo. Finbarr has also produced exhibitions for the Nobel Peace Prize and the International Criminal Court. His focus in recent years has been on leading collaborative multi-platform projects that develop and promote a more representative range of voices and perspectives in the photojournalism industry while translating strategic and editorial objectives into engaging and compelling narratives that influence global audiences.

Finbarr is a Canon Ambassador and has held fellowships at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia universities and has won numerous awards, including World Press Photo of the Year, a Peabody Award, and an Emmy for Outstanding Video Journalism. He was the winner of the 2023 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting and is the co-author of the 2017 memoir Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War (Penguin-Random House).

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