combat

The Female Ukrainian Soldier Behind Iconic Invasion Photos

Iryna Rybakova's photographs have been published throughout the world's media, yet using her camera is only one part of her job as a junior lieutenant and press officer in the Ukrainian military.

Provocative Photos of Camera Gear Arranged to Look Like Weaponry

Arranging camera equipment to look like a gun is not a novel idea, but photographer Jason Siegel's art project Shoot Portraits, Not People takes this provocative idea to a new level by building all sorts of weaponry and combat materials using hand-picked pieces chosen from over 200 pounds of camera parts.

How a Combat Photographer Named a Phenomenon to Honor Soldiers

While embedded with troops in Afghanistan in the late 2000s, war photographer and writer Michael Yon captured numerous photos of the sparkling halo that can appear when a helicopter's rotors hit sand and dust. Upon finding that the particular phenomenon didn't have a name, Yon gave it one that honors two fallen soldiers: the Kopp-Etchells Effect.

US Marine Photographer Recreates Battle Scenes with Stormtrooper Toys

Matthew Callahan is a US Marine and combat correspondent. Typically, he tells military stories through powerful photo essays; but when he isn't photographing marines, he turns his camera on his stormtrooper toys, creating striking battle scenes for the fine art project Galactic Warfighters.

D-Day Photos Recreated Through a War Reenactment

If you want to experience what it's like to shoot as a combat photographer, but don't want to actually risk getting shot at, you can look into photographing war reenactments. Lucas Ryan is a photographer who shoots reenactments, and last year he covered D-Day Conneaut, one of the world's premier D-Day reenactment events.

These Are the First Combat Zone Tintype Photos Created Since the Civil War

Ed Drew is an artist who's studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, pursuing a BFA in sculpture with a minor in photography. He's also a defensive heavy weapons and tactics specialist for the California Air National Guard.

When Drew was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan this past April as a helicopter aerial gunner, he decided to bring his passion for photography with him. What resulted were the first tintype photos to be created in a combat zone since the Civil War.

Long Exposure Photos of Gunfire at Night (A Memorial Day Memory)

In April of 1970 I was near Phu Tai, Vietnam in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Admin Compound. We were pissed off at taking Viet Cong sniper fire from the mountain above us several nights in a row. The guy would stand up from behind a rock and blow off a clip from his AK47 on full-auto. The sniper was shooting at such a high angle that most of his rounds came through the sheet metal roofs of our hooches. We decided to use a "heavy" response the next time(s) the sniper hit us.

Snap Snap Snap: A Look Into the Mind of a Military Photojournalist

What's it like to shoot on the front lines of battle as a military photojournalist? This 15-minute documentary by filmmaker Hannah Hill will tell you. Here's the video's description:

This is a documentary about Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane, a United States Air Force photojournalist, who has deployed to Afghanistan twice. He shares his experiences as a photojournalist in a combat environment as well as the mental and physical toll it takes on him.

Crane is based out of O’Fallon, Illinois, and has served as a combat cameraman for a Special Forces, photographing the war with a DSLR and an M4.

The Never-Before-Published Pacific War Photos of Private Glenn W. Eve

Back in the summer of 1942, the US Army called upon a young man named Glenn W. Eve (above left) for World War II. After finding him to be 5'9'' and just 125 pounds, the military deemed him unfit for combat. Unlike Steve Rogers, there was no experimental serum available to Eve, but luckily he had a desired skill: photography. In 1944, Eve was promoted to private first class and placed in the Signal Photo Corps in order to document the happenings in the Pacific.