From Syria to Iraq, Save the Children centenary photo show reveals indomitable spirit of kids in war zones
- Fifty images by photojournalist Nicole Tung will go on show in her native Hong Kong to mark the centenary of the Save the Children charity
- With a focus on Syria and Iraq, many of the images show children who still have big hopes and dreams despite having their lives destroyed by war
Hong Kong photojournalist Nicole Tung has witnessed many times the devastating impact that conflict has on civilians. Since graduating from New York University in 2009 she has covered a number of conflict zones and conflict-affected areas, mostly in the Middle East.
In 2011, she was in Libya capturing the revolution that would overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. The same year she covered the Arab spring in Egypt and later the fall of its then president Hosni Mubarak. Other assignments have taken her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she photographed former child soldiers, and home to Hong Kong to cover the 2014 pro-democracy protests. In the US, the 33-year-old has photographed Native American war veterans and more recently she has turned her lens on abused women in Turkey.
But it was while covering the Syrian civil war that Tung says she matured as a photographer – and as a person.
“That’s when I thought it was more important to focus on civilians,” says Tung, who is now based in Istanbul and whose work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Le Monde, Stern Magazine and Harper’s.
