While some may commence their photography careers assisting on local studio shoots or piecing together a folio out of unpaid editorial work, NY-based documentary photographer Benjamin Lowy went in a completely different direction. After receiving his BFA at Washington University in St Louis, he dove head first into the Middle East and began documenting the war in Iraq. Drawn to the kind of areas that most would go to great lengths to avoid, he has followed his passion everywhere from the opium dens of Afghanistan to earthquake devastated Haiti. His ability to capture emotion and atmosphere is amazing and his documentation of some of the gnarliest occurrences on the planet are as impressive as they are confronting.
Warning: some of the images are very confronting... not for the faint-hearted.
More at benlowy.com. Via dimitriishere.tumblr.com.