The wail of sirens and a barrage of messages jolted photojournalist Ziv Koren awake on the morning of October 7, 2023.
Unsure of what was unfolding, he grabbed his cameras, put on his bulletproof vest and headed south from Tel Aviv on his motorcycle.
He did not get far before encountering roadblocks and scenes of devastation. As he entered Sderot, he began photographing what he saw: victims at bus stops, in cars and on city streets. From that moment on, bearing witness became his mission.
For the next five months, Koren traveled between the home front and the front lines, capturing images of destruction and resilience, grief and solidarity. As both a journalist and an Israeli, he felt compelled to document events that would shape history.
A veteran photographer who has covered conflicts, natural disasters and humanitarian crises around the world, Koren says nothing prepared him for October 7. He lost 15 friends. He photographed shattered communities, funerals, returning residents, wounded soldiers and hostages and their families, absorbing the pain behind every image.
Koren joins us to discuss his quest to document difficult truths, the emotional toll of witnessing trauma, the courage he encountered amid devastation and the responsibility of preserving a visual record that cannot be distorted or forgotten.
Koren’s award-winning photographs have been exhibited internationally and published widely in the global media. His 1995 photograph of an exploded Israeli bus was selected by World Press Photo as one of the 200 most important images of the preceding 45 years.