--- description: Of the millions of photographs moving through the news services (a.k.a. wires) this year, the work of AFP's Mauricio Lima stood out. A small selection from the remarkable body of work he produced on title: Wire Photographer of the Year: Mauricio Lima image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) # Wire Photographer of the Year: Mauricio Lima by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 21, 2010 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 21, 2010 5:00 AM CUT Of the millions of photographs moving through the news services (a.k.a. wires) this year, the work of AFP’s Mauricio Lima stood out. A small selection from the remarkable body of work he produced on his first trip to Afghanistan. By Phil Bicker ### Assignment Afghanistan  For two and a half months in the spring of 2010 Mauricio Lima covered the war in Afghanistan. After embedding for four weeks with the US Marines in Marjah, Helmand province, he spent over a month on his own, basing himself out of Kabul and getting around with a local driver. This photo of a detainee was taken during the time Lima was embedded with the Marines. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Tattoos  The Marine portrait series simultaneously includes a number of close-ups of their tattooed inscriptions, telling the story of their lives as warriors, to vanquish their fears, honor their comrades or proclaim their loves. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Interpreter  Lima's work has a common thread of bonding, family and brotherhood between men and between boys. One of the few images of women is of this Afghan-born American civilian Nekqadama, a contract interpreter for the US marines of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, who refers to herself as an "Afghan sister." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Early Morning Operation  Beyond the base and outpost with the Marines in Helmand Province, Lima maintained his unique vision and ability to record the unexpected composition, like this Afghan army soldier washing his head in the early morning hours. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Poppy Field  A group of Marines sit barefoot at day's end, during a 24-hour operation. "There was some planning to establish the stories I was looking for," Lima says. "I knew there would be the military aspect with the Marines, and then the Afghan civilians' lives and activities in Kabul." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Afghan Farmer and Son  The difference between military and civilian lives "provided a sort of mental divide between categories," Lima says. "But within those categories, the photos I took were intuitive. Watching and waiting for a distinctive picture is what I do. It's patience, perseverance — and moving quickly to capture the moment when you see it." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### At Play  "I explore a place and keep observing the people, what they are doing, what their eyes are saying. My job is to follow these human stories and document them." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Swimming Pool  Whether images of American soldiers, detainees, child workers or young men at play, Lima's make up a diverse yet consistent body of work. His photographs always provide an original, surprising and personal take on Afghanistan. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### On Patrol  Lima credits AFP's South Asia Photo Editor Pedro Ugarte for "encouraging me to make as many photo features as I could after I arrived in Kabul. I had an unusual freedom to go after the parallel stories, the ones behind the headlines." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Cricket  Parallel stories like this one about children playing cricket show a very different aspect of life during wartime. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Blast Walls  "It was so strange," Lima says of his time in Afghanistan. "Every night that I lay my head on my pillow, I thought I was living a dream there. I knew I would have the opportunity at some point to go to Afghanistan, and I was all fired up to be there and to do photography that captured a deeply personal point of view, that focused on the people living this upheaval." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Buzkashi  A professional photographer for 12 years, Lima started out at a local Brazilian sports newspaper before joining AFP, where he has been working for the past 10 years. Based in Sao Paulo, he has also worked on assignments throughout Latin America, Iraq and the Middle East. This was his first trip to Afghanistan. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Labor Relations  In April, Lima photographed child laborers who are surprisingly part of the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) a Marine initiative established to provide funds for reconstruction and repairs resulting from combat activity. Children between the ages of 3 and 12 are engaged to work for $5 per 4-8 hour week digging holes, burning rubbish and building walls. Marjah has been without school since the early 1980s. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Instructions  "I feel gratified that what I set out to do is borne out in my work," Lima says. "These are skills I've been honing for years. Being in Afghanistan felt like I was in the best place to put those skills to work, covering an important moment of history but never losing sight of my goal to document the lives of ordinary people in this extraordinary situation." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Portraits, Part II  "Those Marines and Afghan children were amazing. They gave themselves to me, and I was honored by their generosity." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Child Workers  "Nothing else I've covered so far, not even in the Middle East, can be compared with Afghanistan. It was very intense in all aspects. I can tell that the two months there flashed by like two weeks in time — and yet they gave me two years of experience." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Afghan Policemen  "I would definitely like to get back to Afghanistan next year.There are still a lot of stories to work on to get to that point. I left quite a few behind in Afghanistan, which is truly a fascinating country." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Heroin  "Before I came to Afghanistan," Lima says, "I did a lot of research on local and cultural aspects. It was nothing new, I mean, these features were well done by dozens of colleagues. I just tried to get a different approach on them." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Addict  Of his method of working, Lima says that he aims for "invisibility" in order to get closer to the subjects, citing Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and James Nachtwey as inspirations. "That is the overriding ethic of all my work, and in photography it means exercising perseverance." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Afghan National Army Soldier  The intimate, poetic images that Lima made seem to come from another age. Their approach and composition recall Cartier-Bresson's "Decisive Moment," while the pastel color palette — a perfect aesthetic for Afghanistan's dry, dusty landscape and ancient culture — recalls the Autochrome process of the earliest color photography. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### House-by-House Search  Lima says that he goes "to lengths to make sure I am capturing real colors and light in the scene. I do very little post-production work on my images. When I was working around the old part of Kabul, I found it was like I had an old-style movie running in my head recounting the 10 years of war Afghanistan has seen." Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Detainee  The photographs from Lima's embed with the US Marines of the 3rd Battalion 6th Marines yield surprising imagery like those of this detainee being "taken care of" before being given dinner at a combat outpost. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Combat Outpost  Lima uses his intimate and relaxed approach to document marines reading by headlamps at the end of the day. Mauricio Lima / AFP / Getty Images ### Portraits  One of the most striking series from the four-week embed is a set of images of the Marines posing for Lima. Remarkably, Lima reveals that "this was the first series of portraits I've ever done in my career." 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