John Moore/Getty Images

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN - DECEMBER 27: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto addresses thousands of supporters at a campaign rally minutes before she was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The opposition leader died from wounds to the neck and head after speaking at an election rally in the northern city where an estimated 15 people were left dead by the explosion.

In the latest Getty Images photographer podcast, Getty Images CEO and Co-Founder Jonathan Klein recently talked with staff photographer John Moore to discuss what it is like working behind the lens in the middle of a conflict and living life as an award-winning photojournalist in Pakistan.

Throughout his career, John has traveled and lived in several parts of the world including Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Egypt and for the past three years, Islamabad, Pakistan. Since joining Getty Images in 2005, John has extensively covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, photographing the US and British military in some of the world’s most dangerous combat zones.

Last year, John spent much of his time covering Pakistan’s slide into instability. In December 2007, he was the only American photojournalist to capture the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the chaotic moments thereafter.

John earned two first-place World Press Photo awards for his coverage of the Bhutto assassination and was awarded this year’s “Magazine Photographer of the Year” from Pictures of the Year International (POYi) and was awarded “Photojournalist of the Year” from the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).

To learn more about John, don’t miss his previous Getty Images blog posts:

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

John Moore/Getty Images

As the sole American journalist present at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in late December, Getty Images’ senior staff photographer John Moore was interviewed extensively by international media following the event. What follows, however, is the only account that he has written about that day:

She came out waving and smiling and standing up through the sun roof of her armoured car. I couldn’t believe it then and I still can’t today.

I was actually walking away at the time. The campaign rally had finished and I had squeezed through the single narrow gate of the fenced park. I wanted to get ahead of the throngs of Benazir Bhutto supporters. But when I heard a cheer erupt, I turned around, and there she was.

I pushed my way back 50 yards through the frenzied mob of devotees. Shoving past people to get close to her vehicle. I shot 15 frames just in front of her car, photos of her waving goodbye to her supporters.

As the former prime minister’s car surged forward, I pushed out of the way, ahead of her vehicle. I needed to adjust my camera. In the melee, the shutter setting had been bumped down to 1/15th and 1/8th of a second, giving the photos an unintended impressionistic look.

I turned on my flash, but just before resetting the lens, I turned and glanced back at her car.

Just then I heard three shots, which sounded as if they were fired from close to her car. I watched her drop down through the sunroof, and I raised my camera, my finger pressed down on the shutter release.

Just as the camera came up in front of my face, the bomb went off.

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