THE CLOSEST NICOLE TUNG HAD come to serious bodily harm was when she was standing 20 metres from a residential building and a Syrian fighter jet flew by to drop a bomb on the building. Minutes later, the jet came back to drop a second bomb on another building 40 metres from where she stood – and then again on a third building nearby. 

As debris rained on her, she ducked and endured the onslaught, eventually rising to her feet with her camera to take photos of the survivors. The photojournalist recounts: “All the people in the building were civilians. I witnessed people streaming out of their destroyed houses, bringing out the dead and injured. Most of them were children.” 

In the 12 years that she’s covered Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Congo and other conflict zones, there have been several similar incidents. She’s found herself caught in airstrikes and crossfire, dodging bullets and bombs, and manoeuvring the utter chaos of their aftermath – in order to take photos that inform, and illuminate the realities of war.

In 2023, a year punctuated by conflict, natural disaster and extraordinary grief, the Hong Kong-born, naturalised American says: “There are days when I wake up, and I’m so depressed I don’t want to go to work. 

“But I remember the people I photographed: Mothers who are left with nothing, but who manage to find small objects to turn into toys to distract their children from grief. Families whose homes have been destroyed by earthquakes, but who use what little money they have left to buy decorative fabrics to hide the cracks and rubble.

“If they haven’t given up on their lives, what right do we have to give up on them? If they can find hope in the darkest hours, who are we not to try to do the same for them? If you can help, you always should.”

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Pictures worth a thousand tears

For over a decade, her poignant words and pictures have appeared in top titles such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and Le Monde. In 2023, her snapshots of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and tragic earthquakes in Syria and Turkey graced some of their front pages. Recently, her favourite camera brand Leica celebrated her oeuvre in a Singapore exhibition dedicated to women shutterbugs.

One of her most striking photos is that of a Syrian boy seated next to a body bag containing his father, who had died in a bomb attack. Because he was young, he did not fully understand the implications of his loss, so he simply stared stoically at the camera and did not cry.

Tung says she would like to cover the Israel-Gaza war, but very few foreign journalists have been granted access into that territory. “A lot of what we see from Gaza right now is either from the Gaza journalists who are really risking everything, or what the Israeli army wants you to see,” she says. “If I could get unrestricted access and independence in telling the story, I would certainly like to go.”

When assigned by a major publication, she typically works with a security adviser on top of a local fixer-translator and driver. But in the early years of her career, she often ventured into conflict territories alone. In 2011, she flew to Africa to cover the Arab Spring, just two years after she graduated from New York University with a degree in history and journalism.

Back then, without the backing of any publication, she covered the brutal protests in Egypt, Libya and Syria on her own, driven almost solely by a sense of invincibility that youth bestows. She recalls: “For Syria, I had to smuggle into the country, squeeze under a fence between Turkey and Syria, and run across olive groves because I didn’t want to be caught by the military on either side.”

Now 37, Tung is more aware of life’s fragility, having lost well-known journalist friends such as Marie Colvin, Chris Hondros, Tim Hetherington and James Foley, all violently killed on the job. She takes breaks between assignments to process her grief – not just of lost friends, but also the thousands of deaths she’s borne witness to. But she chooses to return to the field time and again, because she wants “to bring visibility to how people are affected by global conflict”.

Her work has moved and haunted many who have reached out to her to ask how they can help the victims. Yet she downplays its influence on politicians, saying: “Where it matters on the political level and global stage, I sometimes feel that no matter what we do as photographers and journalists, it’s hard to change anything in that sphere.”

Christmas in war-torn countries

As Christmas approaches, Tung isn’t sure where she’ll be on Dec 25. In fact, Christmas in 2022 marked the first time in a long while that she celebrated the occasion with her parents and elder brother. Soon after that, she found herself in an underground bunker in Ukraine, photographing a family that was trying to usher in 2023 in their humid and dark confines. The photo was featured in Leica’s exhibition.

Even in the most troubled places, Tung says people find it in their hearts to celebrate Christmas and New Year with joy: “In 2016 or 2017, I was in Iraq, where there is a sizeable Christian community of about 150,000 people. All the shops in the Christian neighbourhood were filled with Christmas trees and pictures of Jesus, Mary and Santa Claus. There was a genuine feeling of Christmas all around. For a moment, I almost forgot I was in Iraq. 

“Then in 2019, I was in Gaza, which also has a Christian community with two main churches. I visited one during the religious holiday and listened to sermons being delivered in different languages, sometimes Arabic, sometimes Aramaic. It was so beautiful.”

Her Christmas wish? “For all of us to listen to each other with understanding and empathy. In every conflict, we see evil, but also profound humanity on both sides. In the Israel-Palestine conflict, for instance, we see Jews fighting for the lives and rights of Palestinians, and Palestinians doing the same for Jews. You see compassion, kindness and forgiveness from people of all backgrounds. I wish we could all be that way.”

Photography: Hans Goh Art directions & styling: CK Hair & make up: Zoel Tee, using Dior Beauty