Fayaz Aziz

Fayaz Aziz

Based
Peshawar, Pakistan
Born
Peshawar, Pakistan
Status
Photographer
“Hard work can produce excellent results.”

Beat

Spot news, daily life.

One Shot

. Charsadda, Pakistan. Reuters/Fayaz Aziz
Flies sit on the face of two-year-old Saba Gull, whose family was displaced by heavy floods, outside her family tent at a camp for flood victims in Charsadda, northwest Pakistan. The 2010 Pakistan floods affected 20 million people and left about 2,000 dead.
“The condition of the girl, whose skin got infected by the floodwater, shocked me.”

Profile

My elder brother was a photographer at a local newspaper. When I was young it was normal to accompany him on his assignments. On one occasion, he was sent to cover a local politician speaking at Peshawar University. During the event there was a huge explosion and people were running and crying for help, covered in blood.

I saw him busy shooting pictures, along with other photographers. I thought what a risky job my brother was doing, having the courage to stay and attend to their duties while people were running for their life. It was at that point I decided to become a photographer.

I learned photography while working at a studio in 1988, then as a photographer for a local newspaper.

Assignments about militants are those that interest me most.

My first assignment for Reuters was in 2004 when I was assigned to cover Pakistani paramilitary force operations against militants in Wana, South Waziristan. I documented militants after the paramilitary force detained them. I also photographed Internally displaced people who had left their homes and everything behind because of the militants. This taught me the importance of reporting both sides of a story.

The assignment that left the biggest mark on me was back in 2013. I was covering an explosion in a Christian church. While shooting pictures I saw from a distance the rising arm of a boy who was lying in a pool of blood. It seemed to me that he was raising his arm to ask for help. Just when I had that thought his arm fell. I was shocked and in panic about what to do as I saw he had died right in front of me. I still remember that moment very clearly.