Displaced Women, Sudan, 2007

Photo by Gary Knight / VII. Displaced Women, Sudan, 2007.

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From the photographer: “This image was shot on assignment for Newsweek in Darfur in 2007. It was one of my last assignments before I changed the direction of my career and moved away from working in the news environment. Newsweek correspondent Rod Nordland and I had spent 9 months trying to get to Darfur. When we finally made it we were the first foreign correspondents to get there in a year. We had planned on spending 2 weeks in the troubled region before filing our work to Newsweek but once we arrived, concerned that other new organizations may also get there our editors asked us to file within 3 days. This was a difficult request because traveling around the region and reporting was very time consuming, Darfur is the size of France but has virtually no roads. It was further complicated because we were put under house arrest as soon as we arrived. We managed to escape house arrest in the early hours of the morning, made our way to an African Union base and hitched a ride on a helicopter to a South African military base in Kutum. With 24 hours left to file our story I had no imagery I could use. The South African commander invited me to join a Donkey Patrol the following day. This didn’t sound especially interesting but it was all that I could do. I could not have imagined what a powerful moment it would represent.”