Paula Bronstein

Photographer
     
Anya award
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Nationality: American
Biography: Paula Bronstein is an American photojournalist who is based in Bangkok specializing in the Asian region. She has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout her long career that spans over three decades. Her expertise is documenting humanity,... MORE
Private Story
Anya award
Copyright Paula Bronstein 2024
Updated Jun 2021
Over the years my extensive work covering every kind of story in many countries has taught me to be a very dedicated photojournalist. My work always requires courage, commitment, and persistence. I challenge myself both physically and mentally working in demanding conditions. I try to focus on under-reported stories that depict an unvarnished reality of life. My desire is always to provoke change and awareness getting people to care. This is certainly amongst the many things that Anya Niedringhaus and I share, as well as our code of ethics. My submission showcases a tremendous variety of work that demonstrates my sophisticated eye and visual diversity. It also highlights a topic that is close to my heart, looking at Afghanistan’s war wounded, telling stories about the silent victims of war. I included an image from my award-winning book, Afghanistan: Between Hope & Fear as this book is one of my significant career achievements working in the country for two decades. I am traveling back to the Afghanistan again this week to document the Last Chapter of War.
Mu photo submission : In 2017, I documented the Rohingya refugee crisis ( images 5 and 6 ) as tens of thousands of refugees desperately fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. This story proved to be one of the most demanding that I ever covered working in muddy rice paddies in the searing heat, the story of their suffering had to be exposed to the world. The result is that award winning work has been exhibited in numerous countries and widely published. In 2019, I documented stories in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the first time. The country has a brutal history where rape is commonly used as a weapon of war. I was both shocked and traumatized documenting children as young as three years old who were sexually abused. You will see one image ( image 12)  from the Panzi hospital operation room where Balati, age 3, was about to undergo an operation to repair her vaginal area after being raped. My project  “Ukraine's War: Elderly Lives Frozen By Conflict” ( images 7 and 8) My focus in Ukraine was the vulnerable, fragile elderly population trapped by a war that sees their lives frozen by conflict, impoverished, living in dilapidated homes. When it comes to war the elderly are rarely the focus so it was important for me to bring global attention to this under-reported issue. Lastly, I wanted to show images from the USA - 2020,  which shows my work covering the protests in Portland along with the historic wildfires that devastated parts of Oregon.