Investigators began the grim task of exhuming bodies from a mass grave while assessing evidence of war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine recently liberated from invading Russian troops in the spring of 2022. Death was everywhere.
Carol Guzy was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on March 7, 1956. In 1978 she completed her studies at Northampton County Area Community College, graduating with an Associate's degree in Registered Nursing. A change of heart led her to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale to study photography. She graduated in 1980 with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Photography. She was a staff photographer at The Miami Herald for eight years and 30 years at the Washington Post. She is currently an independent photojournalist on contract with Zuma Press.
• Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, 1995 (Military Intervention in Haiti) • Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, 1986 (Mudslide Armero, Colombia - Shared with Michel du Cille) • Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, 2000 (Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo – Shared with Lucian Perkins & Michael Williamson) • Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography 2010 (Haiti Earthquake - Shared with Nikki Kahn & Ricky Carioti) • Newspaper Photographer of the Year, 1989, 1992 and 1996, o (National Press Photographers Association, POY) • Photographer of the Year, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2023 (White House News Photographers Association) • Overseas Press Club, John Farber Award, 1996 (Citation of Excellence, 1986, 1995 2000) • Visa d'Or Award for News Photography, Visa Pour L'Image (Perpignan, France), 1995 • Leica Medal of Excellence, 1994 • Honorary Doctorate Degree (Doctor of Humane Letters), 2000 • F. Kennedy Award, Grand Prize International Photojournalism 2009 • Robert F. Kennedy Award, Outstanding Coverage of the Disadvantaged in America, 2010 • Robert Capa Gold Medal, Overseas Press Club 2018 • Chris Hondros Memorial Award, International News 2020 • WHNPA Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 • Hugo Shong Lifetime Achievement Award 2022
Wreckage of war and bodies littered the streets of Bucha, Ukraine recently liberated from invading Russian troops as investigators began the grim task of exhuming bodies from a mass grave behind the Church of St. Andrew and All Saints, while assessing evidence of war crimes in April 2022. Death was everywhere.
The ghostly sight of hands and legs protrude from the earth. Volunteer gravediggers use a door and crane to lift corpses from the ground where they were stacked together. One rises with the surreal resemblance to a crucifix. Some had signs of torture and hands tied or shot in the head. Civilians. Elderly, women, children. Bucha has become synonymous with the atrocities of this invasion. Russia has been accused of waging a war of terrorism on the vulnerable.
To date there are 24,425 civilian casualties: 8,983 killed and 15,442 injured as reported by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Desperate families gather while trying to identify their loved ones. Pain is etched on their faces as they recognize the lifeless form as their own.
Every corpse is painstakingly examined at a nearby cemetery and forensics are recorded. Eyes of death stare from a body bag begging the question what was his final sight before life ended?
Many sorrowful funerals are held for the fallen. Wails of weeping loved ones echo throughout the land. Soldiers are not the only casualties of this conflict as its toll reaches far from the frontline and families bury their dead, dealing with the tragic aftershocks of loss. Birds fly past a war-damaged tombstone as a mother weeps at her son’s gravesite after countless days of searching for his body. ‘He’s in the sky,’ she cries, feeling a small shred of bittersweet peace that he is finally at rest.
“I have no tears left,” said Natalia Bogdanov after her husband's burial as she walked away from the cemetery lined with freshly dug plots awaiting the dead.