The latest information on photographer Anton Hammerl, who disappeared in early April in Libya, is bleak. “A statement on Facebook attributed to Mr. Hammerl’s family said they learned Thursday that he had in fact been killed April 5 by the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi”, according to lens.blogs.nytimes.com. The Facebook page states: “On 5 April 2011 Anton was shot by Gaddafi’s forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert. According to eyewitnesses, his injuries were such that he could not have survived without medical attention (…) It is intolerably cruel that Gaddafi loyalists have known Anton’s fate all along and chose to cover it up.”
- Jan Banning
May 4th 1954, Almelo
Dutch photographer and artist. Banning was born in the Netherlands from Dutch-East-Indies parents. He studied social and economic history at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and has been working as a photographer since 1981. A central theme of Banning's practice is state power, having produced series about the long-term consequences of war and the world of government bureaucracy.