Joao Silva was on assignment for the New York Times in Afghanistan last year when a land mine exploded beneath him. He lost both of his legs and suffered major internal injuries. That was October. Less than a year later, walking on prosthetic legs and using a cane, he returned to work — and snapped a photograph of the Walter Reed Medical Center that landed on the front page of the Times. Silva was being treated there as a patient, which is why the Times thought to give him the assignment. But it turns out he’d already been taking pictures before they gave him the official go-ahead. Silva, it seems, doesn’t let things hold him back.
