#tim freccia

'Next of Kin': Portraits in a time of conflict

Tim Freccia writes of his “Next of Kin” body of work: “‘Next of Kin’ began a few years ago as an attempt to find meaning in my three decades’ career as a working photographer. I became focused on a melancholic symbol: When filling out forms for clients or officials, I’d come to a line labeled ‘Next of Kin,’ which names who to call in an emergency, who to send my remains to. I've always balked at this line. Though I've been married three times and have three children, I've never been able to list a person I'd want anyone to call.

“Then, recently, my son wrote a school paper on the theme of crisis and conflict photography. He and I discussed at great length whether documentary photographers are ‘vultures or artists,’ and I introduced a third category: ‘tradespeople.’ The industry of documentary photography has evolved significantly since I started in the days of film, and I’ve evolved from a person with a technical skill set to an ‘artist’ with a vision to share. I'm not exactly comfortable with this moniker.

“My takeaway from these ruminations is that all along, I've been trying to document humans in conflict and crisis. And in a sense, I've been making family portraits — images of our cousins whom we don't hear from so often.”

Freccia refers to himself as a “folk photographer” and specializes in communicating stories of people from all economic, social and ethnic backgrounds. He has produced still photography and motion pictures for many media outlets, NGOs and humanitarian organizations both large and small, in Europe, Asia and Africa.​ Freccia is based in New York and works globally. He is represented by Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York City.

“Next of Kin,” by Tim Freccia, exhibition opening and talk, Oct. 16, 7 p.m., at the Half King. The exhibition runs through Nov. 4.

See more photos of “Next of Kin” and our other slideshows on Yahoo News.

Printed in life size and confronting viewers head-on, these arresting photos of South Sudan’s White Army show unique individuals who are nevertheless unknown. Taken by photojournalist Tim Freccia this year, they depict members of the Nuer ethnic group who are battling the nation’s other dominant group, the Dinka. (At Chelsea’s Ricco Maresca through September 13th.) Tim Freccia, three type C-print surface mounted images, each titled ‘White Army,’ 84 x 42 inches, 2014.

Saving South Sudan – Full Length

Late last year, South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup d'état amid accusations of rampant corruption within the government. Infighting immediately broke out within the presidential guard, sparking what has now become a brutal tribal and civil war that has pitted Machar’s ethnic Nuer loyalists against the majority Dinka, who have sided with Kiir. Machar narrowly escaped assassination, fleeing to the deep bush as Kiir’s troops razed his home and killed his bodyguards. And now the world’s newest sovereign nation is in imminent danger of becoming a failed state.

In February, journalists and filmmakers Robert Young Pelton and Tim Freccia set out on a grueling mission to locate Machar in his secret hideout in Akobo and get his side of the story. Accompanying was Machot Lat Thiep, a former child soldier and Lost Boy who had advised on South Sudan’s constitution and now works as a manager of a Costco in Seattle. Machot acted as a guide of sorts, arranging Pelton and Freccia’s rendezvous with Machar through a series of endless satellite-phone calls to old contacts and rebel platoons, who would eventually guide the group to the deposed vice president.

After spending a couple days with Machar, he granted Pelton and Freccia unprecedented access to the front lines of a battle in Malakal, where for the first time in history the pair documented the heretofore mythical White Army as they looted, murdered, and pillaged their way to some twisted interpretation of “victory.”

Saving South Sudan – Part 1

Introducing the Saving South Sudan Issue

The "Saving South Sudan" Issue of VICE is unlike anything done before in the 21-year history of the magazine. It tells a single story over the course of 130 pages, following the writer Robert Young Pelton, the photographer and filmmaker Tim Freccia, and a former South Sudanese refugee named Machot as they travel to Machot's homeland, one of the most war-ravaged countries on Earth. For Machot, the trip was an attempt to help South Sudan out of the seemingly never-ending cycle of war, corruption, and power-hungry strongmen that has ruled the country for generations. For Pelton and Freccia, it was the chance to explore and document the conflict that is rapidly turning the three-year-old country into the world's newest failed state—and to find out what, if anything, could stop South Sudan's slide into hell. 

Understandably, they ran into some problems on their journey. To begin with, they almost couldn't find a pilot foolhardy enough to fly them into the middle of an ongoing war between the government in Juba and the rebels led by Riek Machar, the country's former vice president. Then they had to haggle and negotiate their way into an interview with Machar before following his fearsome but undisciplined White Army to a battle in the town of Malakal that turned into wholesale slaughter. 

Partly a history of colonialism and misguided Western interference in Africa, partly a profile of Machar as he plots and coordinates his rebellion in the bush, partly a look into one of the most dangerous, dysfunctional countries in the world, "Saving South Sudan" is a terrific, sobering work, and no one but Pelton and Freccia could have produced it. Pelton, the author of the bestselling, one-of-a-kind travel guide The World's Most Dangerous Places (now in its fifth edition), has profiled "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, been kidnapped by right wing death squads in Colombia, and lived with an elusive retired Special Forces colonel training Karin rebels deep inside the jungles of Burma. Freccia—who like many journalists, was inspired by Pelton's work—has made it his life's work to document conflicts and crisis in Africa and elsewhere. His photos provide a stark, sometimes horrific look into the realities of life in South Sudan, and his video footage is currently a documentary now playing on the site.