The former head of UN Photo, John Isaac, who photographed the work of the United Nations during three tempestuous, but also hopeful, decades at the end of the 20th Century has died aged 80. 

UN News looks back at the world he witnessed through his camera lens.

John Isaac photographed some of the most heartbreaking human tragedies including the famine in Ethiopia in 1984.

A decade later he travelled to Rwanda, chronicling the genocide that had taken place. The experience left him deeply traumatized.

“John was a witness to a troubled world, but he brought compassion, understanding and humour through his work,” said Mita Hosali a long-time colleague in the UN Department of Global Communications. 

Early on in his career in 1979, he documented the fall-out from the war in Viet Nam and the waves of refugees which followed.

He also travelled to Lebanon on numerous occasions to photograph the work of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In March 1991 in Kuwait, he witnessed burning oil fields set alight by Iraqi forces.

John Isaac was also on hand for some of the most uplifting moments in history of the last quarter of the 20th century, including the independence of Namibia in March 1990.

He also photographed South Africa’s first black President Nelson Mandela when the then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali went on an official visit to the country.

John Isaac became a close personal friend of the Hollywood actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Audrey Hepburn, whom he photographed many times.

And he continued to campaign for the protection of tigers in his native India, even as he captured other majestic images of the animal kingdom. 

He famously talked of his humble beginnings as a messenger at the United Nations and how he won a photo contest and went on to be trained as a photographer. 

John Isaac: 8 May 1943 – 1 November 2023