The war in Bosnia in the 1990s raised to common currency the terms ethnic cleansing and humanitarian intervention. It brought back to Europe a barbarism not seen since the Second World War and was the first war fought very much under the eyes of the media. It was also the first conflict fought by killers who knew, even before the war had finished, that a war crimes tribunal awaited them.
Winner of the 2002 European Publishers Award for Photography, Simon Norfolk won the Olivier Rebbot Award in 2003 and was shortlisted for the Citibank Photography Prize. In 2004 he received a prestigious International Center of Photography Infinity Award and the Terence Donovan Award from The Royal Photographic Society.