Assignment Afghanistan wins Digital “Ellie”!
Assignment Afghanistan—my ongoing collaboration with the Virginia Quarterly Review—won the 2011 National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for Best Multimedia Package, beating out National Geographic and New York Magazine.You can see the press release and see a photo of my editor Ted Genoways accepting the award (I was in Afghanistan) here.
I’m beyond thrilled, of course, and mostly take the “Ellie” as inspiration to go out there and tackle new stories. I’ve just returned from Afghanistan, where I worked on a photographic project about all different types of work and workers in Kabul. I’m busy scanning the negatives now (yes, I shot film!) and will be putting together a multimedia project for the website. Last week, I posted a new multimedia piece called “Herat Burning,” about survivors of self-immolation and women who are trying to help them. I’ve also got a series about Zhari District in Kandahar forthcoming, and new trips lined up for summer 2011.
I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the people who have helped put Assignment Afghanistan together, in no particular order (and who have helped keep my life together): Ted Genoways, my longtime editor at VQR, who was at least half the brains behind the project from a conceptual standpoint, and who saw the potential for a totally new type of collaboration between a magazine and a journalist; Jesse Dukes, who patiently sat with me and dutifully took notes while I explained the stories behind hundreds of photos and dozens of audio recordings from Marjah, in Helmand Province, where I spent July of last year with the Marines—Jesse turned those interviews into stunning audio slideshows, and I’m still spellbound every time I watch them even months later; Mary Anne Andrei, who graciously allowed Ted, Jesse and I to invade her basement and kitchen and even occasionally fed us during December and January while we cranked hard on building the material for the project; Bluecadet Interactive, the web gurus and creative geniuses who did an incredible job with the development of the website itself; William Bonnet, a former NATO TV cameraman who kept me company, and managed to crack me up, during some particularly rough spots in Zhari last fall, and whose brilliant video will be featured in upcoming productions from Zhari; my mom, dad, and sisters, who have unflinchingly supported me as I pursue my work in Afghanistan, despite the fact that its the last place they want me to be; and Alexandra Arango, my partner and best friend, whose voice on the other end of a shaky Skype connection is all the salve my heart needs to keep it all going, with a smile even.
I also want to say a word about my friend and former battle buddy Todd Weaver, with whom I served in Iraq in 2004-2005 when we were both enlisted engineers. Todd went on to finish his degree at William & Mary after we got back from Iraq, and I went on to UVA. Both of us graduated near the tops of our classes, and our lives seemed to follow different but somehow parallel courses in the years that followed; he went on to become and infantry lieutenant, and I went on to cover his new war as a journalist. In August 2010, I was within a stone’s throw of his Combat Outpost, but there was another journalist there and I couldn’t get permission to go see him. We emailed and mused on the insane coincidence, and promised we’d get together back in the States. On September 9, Todd stepped on an IED while leading his platoon on a patrol near Combat Outpost Stout in Arghandab District. He left behind his young wife, Emma Louise, and his one year-old daughter, Kiley. I’ll carry his memory with me everywhere and always.
