BOSTON PHOTOJOURNALIST AND FRIEND PAULA LERNER, 52
Posted by Michael
This was written by Ed Greenberg today regarding the death of photographer and industry advocate Paula Lerner. She was an amazing friend and colleague. If you have not seen her Emmy award winning multimedia piece, Behind the Veil, you should. She will be missed.
It is with unspeakable sadness that we inform you of the untimely death of a great lady, Paula Lerner. Paula possessed the all too rare qualities of both bravery and courage well before the insidious cancer ever invaded her body.
While most of us are content with the safety of our daily lives, Paula was busy risking her life to bring home the intimate stories of the brave women in war-torn Afghanistan. Dodging bombs and bullets on five journeys, Paula created the finest collection of photography ever created in or about Afghanistan. Paula won a richly deserved Emmy Award for her work as a photojournalist on “Behind the Veil” an in depth multimedia feature in 2010 which also captured an EPPY Award for Best Web Feature.
As fellow photographer and long time friend commercial photographer Michael Grecco said well, “Paula was fearless in the pursuit of the things she believed in, whether it was to fight for photographer’s rights, as the first Vice President of Editorial Photographers, or when traveling to the war zone to use her lens and multimedia skills to expose the plight of the women of Afghanistan. I was thrilled when she won an Emmy for her hard work. She was a dear friend and will be missed.”
Those of us who create prose rather than images, know all to well that there is simply no “appropriate” space limitations when extolling the virtues of Paula, whether referencing her work or her character. The fact that both her images and life story will become part of the curriculum at The Harvard Women’s Studies program, is testament to an extraordinary life that precious few of us will ever even approach in magnitude. Her images will continue to speak to us and that makes her great photographer. Her character, charity, kindness, curiosity, tenaciousness and bravery made her a great person. Her family, friends, colleagues and clients know that her kind won’t pass this way again.
Paula Lerner is survived by her husband Thomas, and two daughters, Maia and Eliana. Lerner’s last book is now available for purchase on Blurb: www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3024840
The memorial service for Lerner will be held on Friday, March 9, 2012 at 10 a.m. at Beth El Temple Center, at 2 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478. The photographer requested that donations be made to the Business Council for Peace or to Metavivo.
Links to work by Paula Lerner:
