Support the Trust
The Rory Peck Trust is totally independent and relies on income from grants, sponsorship, and charitable donations
Kazbek Basayev
Russian
South Ossetia war
Shot in South Ossetia, Georgia, August 2008
Commissioned and broadcast by Reuters Video News
WINNER - RORY PECK AWARD FOR NEWS 2009
Kazbek Basayev shot the Russia-Georgia conflict from the South Ossetia side, reaching its capital Tskhinvali with the first wave of Russian troops.
His pictures show the human casualties of war – the dead and injured, shocked and displaced survivors in devastated streets – and they provided the first coverage of burning Georgian villages in territory taken under Russian/Ossetian control.
The judges praised the human quality of Kazbek’s camerawork and his ability to tell a complete story through the pictures he shot. One said: “He was dealing with a population under stress, a foreign power, tanks, and burning buildings but in the middle of all that he managed to convey the human face of conflict with a series of thoughtful and beautifully composed shots.”
Biography
Kazbek was born in 1969 in the Soviet city of Ordzhonikidze, now re-named Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. He trained as a vet at the State Agriculture University and did National Service with the Soviet Army in Belarus before getting a job with local TV in North Ossetia. From 2000 to 2005 Kazbek worked as a cameraman for the Russian channel NTV before becoming a freelance. He is married with two daughters.
