Ashley Gilbertson Video Page

Ashley Gilbertson

Ashley Gilbertson squarely believes that the power of photography comes what he calls its "universal experience." Gilbertson points to how the essence of photography can highlight the world's similarities.

Ashley Gilbertson’s photographs from Iraq, where he worked almost exclusively from 2002 until 2008 on assignment for The New York Times, gained him recognition from the Overseas Press Club who, in 2004, honored him with prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work in Fallujah.

His first book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, was released in 2007. Since then, Gilbertson has been working on Bedrooms of Fallen, a collection of photographs depicting the intact bedrooms of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, a substantial part of the project was commissioned by The New York Times Magazine and published in March of 2010.

Gilbertson meanwhile continued to concentrate on the two wars by examining veterans’ issues including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and suicide for Time Magazine and The Virginia Quarterly Review. He is Australian and lives in New York City with his wife and child.

PhotoWings' mission is to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. We help photography to be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved.

View more exclusive PhotoWings videos

Additional videos:

 Inspiration

Less inspired to make pictures by most of his family photo albums, Ashley Gilbertson did take an influence from his aunt's vacation photographs from Africa. Those photos instilled a sense of adventure in him.

 Career Evolution

Ashley Gilbertson traces the path of his career's development, speaking about how his beginnings in skateboard photography as a teenager lead to becoming a street photographer. He speaks about the causes that inspired him, and how he seeks to "give a voice to people who otherwise wouldn't have it."

Learning to Experiment 

Ashley Gilbertson makes an impassioned case for experimenting in photography — or at least not presenting repetitive images to your audience.

Links

Ashley Gilbertson's Website

Official website of "Bedrooms of the Fallen" a project by Gilbertson

"On The Line," Gilbertson's multimedia piece about a veteran crisis hotline (onVII)

Finding Occupy Wall Street on Film, a selection of Gilbertson's "Occupy Wall Street" photographs in the New Yorker

Overexposed: A Photographer's War with PTSD, a story about Gilbertson's experiences in combat photography.