Last week, Ron Haviv returned to Bosnia with an exhibition dedicated to prisoners of war. In an interview with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Ron spoke about the exhibition, his work, and the impact of his images.
“Covering the Bosnian war from the outset, Haviv’s images established him as one of the greatest war photographers of his generation, his photographs of ethnic cleansing and murder carried out by Serbian paramilitaries in the eastern town of Bijeljina used as evidence before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in The Hague.
‘They have had a life of their own,’ Haviv said of his Bosnia photographs. Referring to images of Serb prisoners of war being reunited with their families, Haviv said: ‘The anguish of the families’ faces when they are waiting for the arrival of who they hope will be on the vehicles is a universal feeling.’
‘They are not just only Serbs who can feel that or only Bosnians or only Croatians. They are human feelings that anybody would feel when they themselves or their family were taken prisoner.’”
