Photojournalist Lâm Duc Hiên reflects on decades documenting Kurdistan

ERBIL — In a conversation with 964media’s Hiwa Osman, renowned photojournalist Lâm Duc Hiên shared his deep personal connection with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region — a relationship rooted in decades of documentary work and shaped by his own experience as a refugee.

Hiên fled Laos in the 1970s and later settled in France, where he began a photography career focused on human stories — capturing lives shaped by conflict, resilience, and cultural transformation.

He has been documenting Kurdistan since the 1991 Gulf War. His latest book, “Kurdistan, mon ami”, offers a visual chronicle of the region’s people and landscapes, anchored by enduring symbols like the oak tree. For Hiên, Kurdistan is more than a subject. In his words, it is a “third home.”

In the discussion, he also reflected on the emotional and ethical dimensions of documentary photography — especially as the field faces growing influence from AI-generated imagery.