The Siege of Sarajevo remains the longest siege in modern European history, lasting three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and over a year longer than the Siege of Leningrad. Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo provides the first detailed account of the reporting of this siege and the role that journalists played in highlighting both military and non-military aspects of it. The book draws on detailed primary and secondary material in English and Bosnian, as well as extensive interviews with international correspondents who covered events in Sarajevo from within siege lines. It also includes hitherto unpublished images taken by the co-author and award-winning photojournalist Paul Lowe. In this VII Insider talk, Lowe and co-author Kenneth Morrison discuss the book in conversation with VII photographers and co-founders who covered the siege — Ron Haviv and Christopher Morris. They overview the scope and structure of the book, the process of putting it together, their experiences covering the historic event, and the siege’s importance to the history of the journalism profession.



Dr. Paul Lowe is a Reader in Documentary Photography and the Course Leader of the Masters program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London, UK. Paul is an award-winning photographer who has been published in TIME, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, amongst others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, famine in Africa, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the destruction of Grozny.



Kenneth Morrison is Professor of Modern Southeast European History at De Montfort University, UK. He has written extensively on the modern history of the Western Balkans and is the author of Nationalism, Statehood and Identity in Post-Yugoslav Montenegro (2018), Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn: On the Frontline of Politics and War (2016), Montenegro: A Modern History (2009), and the co-author of Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo (2021) and The Sandžak: A History (2013). Kenneth was a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2018 and has previously acted as Specialist Adviser on Western Balkan politics for the UK House of Lords International Relations Select Committee. He is currently writing a book focusing on the utility of hotels in urban conflicts.



Ron Haviv is an Emmy nominated and award-winning photojournalist and co-founder of the VII Agency, dedicated to documenting conflict and raising awareness about human rights issues around the globe. His first photography book, Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, was called “One of the best non-fiction books of the year,” by The Los Angeles Times and “A chilling but vastly important record of a people’s suffering,” by Newsweek. His other monographs are Afghanistan: The Road to Kabul, Haiti: 12 January 2010, and The Lost Rolls. Haviv has produced an unflinching record of the injustices of war. His work in the Balkans, which spanned over a decade of conflict, was used as evidence to indict and convict war criminals at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. President George H.W. Bush cited Haviv’s chilling photographs documenting paramilitary violence in Panama as one of the reasons for the 1989 American intervention. Haviv is the central character in six documentary films, including National Geographic Explorer’s Freelance in a World of Risk and River of Gold. He has provided expert analysis and commentary on ABC News, BBC, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and The Charlie Rose Show. Haviv is a founding member of VII Agency based in New York.



Christopher Morris was born in California in 1958 and began his career as a documentary conflict photographer working almost exclusively for TIME Magazine, where he has been on contract since 1990. He has been credited with redefining political coverage in America during his years working at the White House for TIME Magazine from 2000 till 2009. Simultaneously to his career as a photojournalist, Morris has expanded his work into the fashion world. He has received various awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, the Olivier Rebbot Award, the Journalism Award from the Overseas Press Club, two Infinity Awards for photojournalism from the International Center of Photography in New York, the PDN Look Fashion Editorial Award and numerous World Press Photo awards. Morris is a founding member of VII Agency based in New York.