I ran across a well-written Newsweek article during lunch on combat photographers. The article highlights the two photographers that were killed last week in Libya, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. A lot of people would say they, and war correspondents in general, are stupid for entering into war-torn countries and knowingly risking their lives. Perhaps. However, I think people forget that those photographs we see aren’t taken by a fly on the wall, but actual people who are trying to get the world to pay attention. Anyways, worth reading or at least browsing some of the pictures.
Photos by Hetherington: At Outpost Restrepo
Photos by Hondros: Orphans of Tal Afar
Many are burdened with a sense of alienation, unable to explain to friends in the “straight world” what they’ve seen and why it keeps drawing them back. Some have lost all perspective on what they’ve experienced. War reporters are unique, Feinstein concludes in his 2006 book Journalists Under Fire, because for them alone, “war is the catalyst, not the nemesis, to their creativity.”