Nicole Tung’s photographs document the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine

February 7, 2023

Nicole Tung has been documenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine almost since its inception. As we approach the conflict’s one-year anniversary, she continues to share remarkable, intimate dispatches of ongoing life and war in Ukraine for The New York Times – and also via her own social media postings.   

Nicole’s work was recognized by The New York Times; and by TIME magazine as among 2022’s best. View just some of recent images she has contributed via The New York Times here: “Dead, Alive or Devastated After Russian Strike on Apartments,” “Without Hesitation, Ukraine Goes Toe to Toe With Russia in Bakhmut,” “At Mass Grave Site in Ukraine’s Northeast, a Sign of Occupations toll” – as well as dispatches like this one, now almost a year old, for Harper’s Magazine

You can find continuing posts from Ukraine on Nicole’s Instagram and Twitter feeds; discover a year-end interview with Nicole here; and see a portfolio of all her remarkable work – including equally moving images covering social and conflict-related issues in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa at her website

Nicole’s photo of civilians aboard an evacuation train in Pokrovsk, Ukraine first appeared in The New York Times, and was later recognized as one of TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2022.
Nicole Tung

Nicole Tung is a freelance photojournalist. She graduated from New York University, double majoring in history and journalism, and freelances for international publications and NGOs, working primarily in the Middle East and Asia. After covering the conflicts in Libya and Syria extensively from 2011, focusing on the plight of civilians, she spent 2014 documenting the lives of Native American war veterans in the US, as well as former child soldiers in the DR Congo, the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and the refugee crisis in Europe. She is also a grantee of the IWMF Grant for Women’s Stories, and a fellow of the IWMF Great Lakes Reporting Initiative (D.R. Congo, Central African Republic). 

She has received multiple awards for her work from the International Photo Awards, Society of Professional Journalists, PX3, and was named PDN's 30 Under 30 Emerging Photographers (2013), among others. Nicole was given the honorable mention for the IWMF 2017 Anja Niedringhaus Awards, and awarded the 2018 James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting from the Online News Association. Her work has been exhibited + screened at the Annenberg Space for Photography, Tropenmuseum Amsterdam, Visa Pour l'Image, and most recently at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award for war correspondents in France (2019), with Save the Children in Hong Kong (2019), and at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong (2020). Nicole has also given keynote speeches and contributed to panels on photojournalism and journalist safety, at events including the International Journalism Festival, TEDx in Sweden, the Adobe Make It Conference in Sydney, and Creative Mornings at the National Geographic Auditorium in Washington D.C., among others. She served on the board of the Frontline Freelance Register (2015) and is has undergone HEFAT training with Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues (RISC) and Global Journalist Security. She is based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Five Things I've Learned About

Documenting Stories of Conflict

Join multi-award-winning photojournalist Nicole Tung, and discover the Five Things She’s Learned about photos’ unique power to inform, to connect, and to document people’s lives.

Nicole Tung

Five Things I've Learned About

Documenting Stories of Conflict

Join multi-award-winning photojournalist Nicole Tung, and discover the Five Things She’s Learned about photos’ unique power to inform, to connect, and to document people’s lives.

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