One year ago, record-breaking floods submerged one fifth of Pakistan’s total land area for months, affecting some 20 million residents and causing some $10 billion in damage. Eleven million Pakistanis were left homeless, and the aid organization Oxfam estimates that more than 800,000 remain without permanent shelter to this day. Many of them, frustrated by limited government assistance, are struggling to rebuild their own homes. Reuters photographer Adrees Latif was in Pakistan one year ago to record the disaster and has just returned to recreate some of his most iconic images. His then-and-now photos reveal what has changed (and what has not) over the course of a year. Collected below are photos from Latif and others that show how Pakistanis continue to cope with last year’s disaster. [39 photos]
Pakistan chief photographer Adrees Latif has won the prestigious ICP Infinity Award in Photojournalism for his outstanding coverage of last year’s Pakistan floods. Working under the most difficult of conditions he led the Reuters pictures team to tell the story from every possible angle.
Reuters Bangkok senior photographer Adrees Latif tells how he took the pictures which won him a Pulitzer Prize. The pictures were taken in Myanmar during the protests in September last year and include the photo of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai being shot.
“Tipped off by protests against soaring fuel prices, I landed in Yangon on 23 September, 2007, with some old clothes, a Canon 5D camera, two fixed lenses and a laptop.
Photo by Adrees Latif of Reuters. A wounded Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, lay before a Burmese soldier yesterday in Yangon, Myanmar, as troops attacked protesters. Mr. Nagai later died. Published September 28, 2007.