David P. Gilkey (January 5, 1966 – June 5, 2016) was a U.S. photojournalist for National Public Radio in the United States, for whom he covered disasters, epidemics and war.

[5][6] As a child, Gilkey wanted to be a truck driver but he took up photography because his father had a dark room and taught David how to use a camera at an early age.

He persuaded editors to allow him a leave of absence from daily work, paid his own way, and with some financial assistance from paper owner Knight Ridder Gilkey traveled to South Africa to cover the end of Apartheid as well as the Rwandan genocide and the famine in Somalia.

[11] In 1996 Gilkey was hired by the Detroit Free Press and worked there for the Knight Ridder media company for 11 years.

Over the span of almost 20 years, Gilkey photographed events such as the ending of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the earthquake in Haiti, and the Ebola incident in Liberia.

[13] An anthology of his work titled Pictures on the radio, spearheaded by former Free Press colleague Chip Somodevilla  [Wikidata], is scheduled to be released January, 2021.

[14] David Gilkey was taking pictures and covering stories of war-related events in Afghanistan around the time of his death.

Multiple attacks were happening between the Afghan military and Taliban fighters, and so Gilkey traveled to Marjah, located in southern Afghanistan, to cover the conflict.

"[8] Irina Bokova, director-general of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said, "I condemn the attack that claimed the lives of David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna.