The New York Times' Lens blog has released the images João Silva shot on the day he stepped on a mine. The photographer, who has lost his two legs in the blast, was embedded with a unit of the 4th Infantry Division, alongside New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall.

According to Gall, Silva had just turned down a side alley and disappeared behind the wall of a ruined compound, following Pvt. Edwin Laplaunt, Sgt. Brian Maxwell and Sgt. Anton Waterman, when there was an explosion. "Black smoke rose over the compound. After a few moments of silence, someone called for a medic. The medic ran to the scene, following Sergeant Elizey’s instructions for safe passage. The sergeant then radioed for a medivac helicopter." Read her full account here and here on the New York Times website.

The Lens blog has also published a video of Silva, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, reviewing the last images he shot. See the video here.

Donations to support Silva can be made by buying a print on the photographer's PhotoShelter account.

Although born in Portugal, the photographer made his name in South Africa when, in the 1990s, he was part of what was known as the Bang-Bang Club, a group of four photographers who worked in South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and up-until the first elections in 1994. The other three members were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Ken Oosterbroek. Carter won, in 1994, the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his controversial picture of a vulture overlooking a young and starving Sudanese girl. In July 1994, Carter took his own life. Oosterbroek died in April 1994 while covering clashes between peacekeepers and supporters of the African National Congress.

Their stories have been made into a film - The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots From a Hidden War - that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The film was shot on location in the Thokoza Township in Johannesburg last year.

According to his website, Silva started his career in photography in 1989 before working for the Alberton Record, a local South African newspaper.