Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.
Following the tragic demise of photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya, there have been numerous interviews and essays on journalists in war zones. Some are not directly related to Tim and Chris, but came up in the light of the difficult and extremely dangerous working conditions of journalists in Egypt and Libya. Questions raised are: Why do they keep going back? What does it mean for their loved ones? What are the employer’s responsibilities? Here is a roundup of some of the most interesting reads.
“You’d almost think it was the first time journalists had been killed in the line of duty, but it wasn’t – it was just the first time, in a long time, that western journalists with names like “Tim” and “Chris” were killed.” Some very important points by Teru Kuwayama on the treatment of fixers, translators and drivers who have been killed or wounded alongside western journalists. Michael Kamber‘s response (cached) offers a different view.
2. What to expect if you’re injured on assignment
“When Bangkok-based photographer Philip Blenkinsop returned home after having a bomb blow up a few feet in front of him while photographing in southern Thailand for Time Asia, he got a lesson in the sort of assistance and protection freelancers on assignment can expect from their clients. ‘I had a lovely bouquet of flowers waiting for me when I got home,’ remembers Blenkinsop. ‘And I was offered an extra day rate.’” Jay Mallin asks about publishers responsibilities when hiring freelance journalists to cover conflict. Most editors prefer not to comment.
3. The inner lives of wartime photographers
“’It becomes your identity in so many ways,’ Joao said. ‘This is my identity. This is all I’m known for. Nobody sends me out to go shoot beautiful pictures for travel articles, you know?’” Bill Keller, Executive Editor of The New York Times, talks with Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva about their careers as war photographers, why Joao still wants to keep going besides having lost both legs and why Greg has stopped covering war. Keller also writes about his responsibilities as an employer.
4. Lara Logan breaks her silence
In an incredibly open and courageous television interview, CBS correspondent Lara Logan talks about being sexually abused by a mob on Tahrir Square. Linsey Addario has also written about being a female journalist in a war zone: “And when I was in Libya, I was groped by a dozen men. But why is that more horrible than what happened to Tyler or Steve or Anthony — being smashed on the back of the head with a rifle butt?”
“Tim is not the first friend I have lost like this. Richard Cross was the first, John Hoagland the second, and few now can even remember their names at all nor the war they died in or what it was about. Sure seemed important at the time. Nicaragua, Contras. Anybody know about it?” Shocked by the death of his friend, David Alan Harvey questions the idea of photographers covering war in general.
“Please no more pedestals. Otherwise more freelance photographers will die and be injured and potentially put the lives of others at risk taking photos that in the current climate may never be published (unless they themselves become the news story).” Duckrabbit on the myth-building around war photographers.
Amendment
7. Face that screamed war’s pain looks back, 6 hard years later
Samar Hassan screamed after her parents were killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2005.
“He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone. ‘When we go out and see a family, they get sad,’ he said. Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying. ‘When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.’” Tim Arango writes about what came the girl in one of Chris Hondros’ most famous pictures. (I feel slightly uncomfortable about the fact that showing here the image for the first time might made her relive the worst moment in her life.) In 2005 Chris himself wrote about Joseph Duo, the subject of another of his iconic images. “He’s been an inextricable part of my life for more than two years now but I’d never known his name, his age or anything else about him. In fact, before last month we’d only met once for a few minutes during a pitched gun battle in West Africa. But our lives connected for good during the millisecond it took to photograph him jumping into the air in exultation during battle.”
“In the Facebook and Twitter age, the time delay of the print news cycle seems positively quaint. I thought about that as I watched real-time updates stream across my monitor and mobile screens — and I wondered if Tim and Chris had family and close friends who hadn’t even woken up yet in whatever time zone they were in.” Teru Kuwayama on how the news of Chris’ and Tim’s death got out on Twitter and Facebook within hours.
Amendment II
9. “You Never Forget the First Taste of War”
“To survive, ‘you stick with colleagues you trust,’ says Yuri Kozyrev, who was with New York Times photographers (and high-school friends) Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario in Libya just before they were taken captive in March and who had planned to be on the trip with Hetherington and Hondros, too. ‘If you are by yourself,’ says Kozyrev, ‘you can just disappear.’ Gary Knight, a founding member of the agency VII, puts it more bluntly: ‘I go in with other people because I don’t want to die alone.’” Jada Yuan on the photographers Chris and Tim left behind.
