Renowned British photojournalist ‘stabbed to death by teenage son’
An award-winning British photojournalist was allegedly stabbed to death by his teenage son while hiking in California.
Dr Paul Lowe, 60, a celebrated photographer who captured the fall of the Berlin Wall, was found dead in the San Gabriel Mountains on Saturday.
Police from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said they were called to “an assault with a deadly weapon” and discovered Dr Lowe with “trauma to his upper torso” near Stoddard Canyon Falls at about 3.30pm local time.
He died from a stab wound to his neck, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Emir Lowe, Dr Lowe’s 19-year-old son, was detained and arrested on suspicion of murder after he crashed his car while driving away from the area at high speed.
He was due to appear in court on Tuesday.
Dr Lowe, who split his time between London and the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, is understood to have been visiting Los Angeles on family matters.
A lecturer at London College of Communication and King’s College London, he documented world events throughout his celebrated career.
His work appeared in publications including TIME, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer and The Independent.
The Cambridge University graduate covered Nelson Mandela’s release, the famine in Somalia and the destruction of the Chechen city of Grozny.
He was best known in the former Yugoslavia for documenting the siege of Sarajevo, where he first came to work not long after the start of the war in 1992.
In 2022, he told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network: “During the siege, I really tried to document the lived experience of the citizens of Sarajevo: their resilience, their creativity, their courage, their humour and their energy in the face of the incredible aggression that they faced.”
Ika Ferrer Gotić, a CNN broadcaster and former Bosnian refugee, paid tribute to Dr Lowe, whom she described as a “storyteller who showed the world the truths that many wished to ignore”.
She added: “Paul wasn’t just any outsider. He became one of us, a Bosnian in spirit, returning to live in Sarajevo with his Bosnian wife he met during war. He chose to make this city, scarred but beautiful, his home.”
The embassy for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UK said it was “deeply saddened to hear the news of the sudden death of our dear friend Paul Lowe”.
It added: “Paul was a true friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a wonderful human being, a great artist and professional, loved and respected by all who knew him.
“The memory and the important work and legacy of Paul Lowe will continue for future generations.”
The VII Foundation, which was founded by independent photojournalists in 2001, wrote on social media: “It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Paul Lowe, whose brilliant life was cut short in Los Angeles, California on Saturday.
“Paul was a courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband. The loss is shocking and overwhelming, and our hearts go out to his wife and family.”