Paul Lowe, the conflict reporter who famously captured the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war before becoming an influential and much-loved lecturer and educator at the University of the Arts London, has died, aged 60.
News of his death sparked an outpouring of grief across all levels of the photography industry, with his students remembering an empathetic and committed teacher who believed deeply in their work. Peers from the photojournalism community remembered a man without ego who held a sincere belief in the humanist capacity of documentary photography.
The VII Academy photography agency, of which Lowe was a member, shared the news of his death on Monday. “It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Paul Lowe, whose brilliant life was cut short in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday. Paul was a courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband. The loss is shocking and overwhelming, and our hearts go out to his wife and family,” the post read.
Over the course of the last decade, Lowe was the course leader of the masters programme in photojournalism and documentary photography at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London. Based between Sarajevo and London, he pioneered an online form of learning that allowed people from all nations and walks of life to learn about photography, years before hybrid learning became the norm after the Covid-19 global pandemic.
“What surprised me most about him was he wasn’t one of those macho types who only really care about reporting from the frontline,” says Anita Chaudhuri, a columnist for The Guardian newspaper who graduated from Lowe’s course in 2022. “And I was surprised by his passion for pushing the boundaries of documentary photography—he was as supportive of fine art and experimental projects as those involving conflict or social realism. My cohort did the MA during lockdown, a challenging time, but he inspired us to see the restrictions as an opportunity. He was energetic, funny and supportive throughout the entire course.”
Lowe's 19-year-old son, Emir Abadzic-Lowe, is due to appear in court in Los Angeles today charged with his father's murder while the two were on a popular hiking trail in the San Gabriel Mountains to the north-east of the city.
According to a log on the public database of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, Lowe’s cause of death was a stab wound to the neck. His body was found on the Mount Baldy Road near Stoddard Canyon Falls.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) said: “On Saturday, October 12, 2024, at approximately 3:28pm, deputies from San Dimas Station responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call for service on Mount Baldy Road, near Stoddard Canyon Falls, in the San Gabriel Mountains. When the deputies arrived on scene, they discovered a White male adult suffering from trauma to his upper torso. San Bernardino Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the victim dead at the scene.”
San Dimas Station arrest records show that Emir Abadzic-Lowe was apprehended close to the scene by local law enforcement. He was held at the San Dimas Sheriff’s Station before being transferred to the Inmate Reception Center in Los Angeles, with bail set at $2m. He is due to appear at the West Covina Superior Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday 16 October, charged with murder.
The LASD said: “A White male adult was seen driving away from the scene and was subsequently involved in a solo traffic collision a few miles away. The male was detained pending further investigation.”
War reporter and lecturer
Before his lecturing career, Lowe documented and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Nelson Mandela’s release in South Africa, and the destruction of the Chechen city of Grozny in Russia. Represented by Panos Pictures, his work was published in Time, Newsweek, Life, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer and The Independent among others.
But he was best known for his intimate portraits of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1996 and, in particular, the Siege of Sarajevo, which lasted 1425 days, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996.
After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then blockaded by the Army of Republika Srpska. The siege was more than a year longer than the siege of Leningrad, and was the longest blockade of a capital city in the history of modern warfare
Lowe arrived in Sarajevo in June 1992, making ten subsequent trips to the city during the siege and meeting the woman who became his wife while in the city.
During his visits, Lowe befriended the city’s artist community, and, through those connections, deeply embedded with the city’s residents, capturing, in ambient monochrome, their daily struggle to work, find and share food, socialise and raise their children as snipers fired constantly on the city. In contrast to the dramaticism and taste for blood that tends to characterise a lot of war reporting, Lowe focused on the Sarajevans’ attempts to develop a sense of normality, and, at times, even fun, despite this constant spectre of violence. Some of his most famous images from the city are of children at play in a place most would consider about as close to hell as possible. One photograph shows a young boy playing football just a few yards from a tank trap.
In an interview with The Guardian, Lowe said: “Sarajevans had little in the way of weapons, while food, water and electricity were often in short supply, but they were incredibly adaptable and tried to live as normally as they could. They would not give up things they wanted to do, such as meeting friends in the city centre. One of my photographs, taken a year in, shows a woman’s feet under a shroud in the morgue. Her toenails were painted, which seemed like a small act of resistance.”
Lowe’s book, titled Bosnians, was published in April 2005 by Saqi books, gaining critical acclaim. After peace was declared in Bosnia, Lowe also worked for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network as a reporter and curator of photography exhibitions.
In July 2022, Lowe was one of the organisers of a conference titled Why Remember? Peace, Conflict and Culture, which was jointly hosted by the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and the Srebrenica Memorial Center.
Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Lowe said of the conference: “Every conflict has its own very specific drivers and outcomes. But, often, there are bigger, broader-scale connections you can make between them. It’s possible to make comparisons. We want to help people see what happened in other countries and consider how that might be reflected in their own society. What can we learn from it?”
In a post on X, Julian Reilly, the British ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, wrote: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Paul Lowe, who will be remembered by all of us whose lives he touched—for his enormous contribution to arts, peace-building, for his courage and for his commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Deepest condolences to his family and all the many so close to him.”
Christian Paul Lowe; born 6 November 1963; died Los Angeles, California, 12 October 2024
Updated 17 October: to add Lowe's date of birth and revise his age at time of death