PHOTOGRAPHY WEBLOG

Lior Ziv

Today a Palestinian sniper opened fire on Israeli troops performing a raid into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. He killed army photographer Lior Ziv (19) who was documenting the raid, and wounded two other soldiers.

In the Eilon High School in Holon, Ziv studied photography and art and displayed his photographs at school exhibitions. The camera was also an integral part of his social life: He documented his friends and the parties and events he helped organize.

Ziv was admitted to the IDF Spokesman's filming and photography unit after strict entrance exams. The unit consists of 30 people, mostly video photographers and a few stills photographers. Ziv did not tell his mother that he had undergone combat training because he did not want to worry her. On Saturday he called to tell her he was on his way to photograph something in Be'er Sheva.

On Passover eve his grandmother asked him if he was doing anything dangerous. "No way," he said. "I'm a jobnik [paper pusher] in the Kirya." His father, the CEO of Carmel Mizrahi, was the only one who knew. The operation in Rafah was Ziv's first complex mission. He asked to be on a team with his two more experienced friends, a video photographer and sound man. The video photographer was badly wounded in the leg; the sound man, who was hit by shrapnel, attended the funeral.

Bronnen: The New York Times, Ha'aretz.