The Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture with Ron Haviv: Testimony (1989–2026)

 

Speaker

Ron Haviv, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and award-winning photojournalist. Director of The VII Foundation.

Testimony (1989–2026)

October 22, 2026

05:00PM - 06:30PM EDT

Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Harvard University
Tsai Auditorium (Room S010), CGIS South Building
1730 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Register here

This event is open to the public and will be recorded. Please register to attend. There will be a public viewing of the exhibition and reception before the lecture, 4:00–4:45 p.m. Please plan on being seated at 4:45 p.m. as the event will start promptly at 5:00 p.m.   

Content Advisory: This presentation includes graphic photographs and video documenting armed conflict, violence, and their aftermath. Viewer discretion is advised.

For more than thirty-five years, Ron Haviv has documented many of the defining events of our time. Through a visual presentation, he explores the realities of conflict and the ethical, practical, and personal challenges of visual journalism, from Central America and the Balkans to the Arab Spring, Ukraine, and an increasingly polarized United States. 

Throughout his career, Haviv has focused on documenting human rights abuses and the consequences of war, including three genocides. Drawing on his experiences in the field, he reflects on the role of the photographer—as witness, observer, and, at times, participant—and explores the ethical responsibilities of documenting history as it unfolds. The lecture also asks what responsibility belongs to the audience. Is witnessing enough, or does seeing create an obligation to understand, remember, and act? 

The presentation weaves together a series of short films with commentary and stories from the field, providing context for the images and an inside look at the challenges and responsibilities of visual journalism.

Take a look at the work of visual artist Ron Haviv >

Chair

Melani Cammett, Center Director; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity and Conflict. Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.

Speaker Biography

Ron Haviv is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and an award-winning photojournalist. He co-founded VII Photo Agency and The VII Foundation, where he currently serves as a director. He is dedicated to documenting conflict and raising human rights issues around the globe.

Haviv’s 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, The Lost Rolls, and Shadow of Memory.

Haviv has produced an unflinching record of the injustices of war covering over twenty-five conflicts and his photography has had singular impact. 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 tribunal 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.

His work is in the collections of The Getty, Eastman House and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston amongst others and has been seen in numerous other museums and galleries, including the Louvre, United Nations, Council on Foreign Relations, Fotografiska, and the International Center of Photography.

Haviv has co-created multi-platform projects for Doctors Without Borders’ DR Congo: The Forgotten War and Starved for Attention, Unicef’s Child Alert for Darfur and Sri Lanka and the International Committee of the Red Cross’s World at War. His commercial clients include Ad Council, American Express, BAE, Canon USA, ESPN, IBM, and Volkswagen.

Haviv is the central character in six documentary films, including National Geographic Explorer’s Freelance in a World of Risk, in which he speaks about the dangers of combat photography, including his numerous detentions and close calls. 

He has provided expert analysis and commentary on ABC World News, BBC, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and The Charlie Rose Show. He has written opinion pieces for The Washington Post and The New York Times and spoken at TEDx along with numerous other lectures at universities and conferences.

Through the Lens of a Photojournalist: Power, Fear, and Photographic Record

 Via Principles First

Thursday, September 24 • 11 AM - 12 PM MDT

Reserve a spot here

Virtual Town Hall with Nate Gowdy

Join Principles First for a different kind of virtual town hall — one told through photographs.

Seattle photojournalist Nate Gowdy will share photographs and firsthand observations from two very different events he documented on the ground: January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and, five years later, federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis.

Gowdy photographed January 6 on assignment for Rolling Stone as a mob breached the Capitol and disrupted Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election. His book, INSURRECTION, is the only photojournalistic monograph devoted entirely to January 6, using timestamped photographs and contextual captions to chronicle the events on the ground as they unfolded.

In Minnesota this past January and February during Operation Metro Surge, Gowdy documented fear and uncertainty reaching into ordinary life—school pickups, grocery runs, work commutes—and residents organizing to observe federal agents, protest, distribute food, and care for neighbors.

These events are distinct. Having witnessed both, Gowdy will explore how power and fear take different forms—and how people respond when national events become immediate and personal.

The photographs begin the conversation. Gowdy will share what preceded and followed particular photographs, what he witnessed beyond the frames, and what he learned. Providing that context is part of his responsibility to the people he photographs and to the historical record—so the circumstances surrounding a photograph are not lost, distorted, or misrepresented.

See the photographs. Hear the stories.

On July 2, 2026 Monroe Gallery hosted a Gallery talk with independent photojournalist Ryan Vizzions.

In September of 2016, Ryan Vizzions traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock NoDAPL movement. Bringing his camera with him, but not intending to be a media source, Vizzions soon found himself using social media to reach over half a billion people with his photographic documentation of events unfolding over the months. With viral reach of one photograph in particular, "Defend The Sacred", Vizzions’ photography helped bring awareness around the world to the movement.

In late 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Vizzions embarked on a long term, multi-year project traveling and photographing across the United States to create a photography book documenting all 50 states. 

In January, 2026 Vizzions documented "Operation Metro Surge" by ICE in Minneapolis involving roughly 3,000 federal agents, leading to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti. His photograph of a masked ICE agent appeared as a full-page spread in the Sunday Opinion page of the February 1, 2026 issue of The New York Times. He has contributed considerable time to photographing and archiving the street memorial of Renee Good.