Tim Hetherington: "“I am a person who goes out into the world and makes these images."
As no doubt some of you have heard, two photojournalists were killed yesterday, 20 April 2011, in Misurata, Libya: Chris Hondros of Getty Images and Tim Hetherington, co-director of Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, documentarian and conflict photographer. I found out last night, and I wept.
I saw Restrepo last summer and I've been following Hetherington's work ever since. Last November, I was fortunate to see him speak at the Corcoran and I was blown away. I've excerpted from an earlier post what I wrote in November:Thursday, 11 November - I walked from Metro Center to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial after work to commemorate Veterans' Day (Armistice Day for others). I'm really glad I did it. There were still a lot of people there, even though dark had fallen, and unlike other recent visits to the memorial, it was actually quiet that night, and when people spoke to one another, it was in a hushed murmur - which is how it should always be. It was very moving. I was moved. After, I walked up to the Corcoran to see documentarian Tim Hetherington speak as part of DC's Fotoweek events. In August I wrote about Restrepo, the documentary filmed by Hetherington & journalist Sebastian Junger, and in September I wrote about Junger's book, War - both about the 15 months these two men spent with a platoon of soldiers assigned to an outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley - at the time, perhaps the most dangerous place in Afghanistan. Hetherington's photobook, Infidel, came out this month, and it's gorgeous. Hetherington's talk comprised of a slideshow of his work along with commentary on his career as a photojournalist and documentarian, his thoughts on his time spent in Africa (he lived in Liberia for some years and covered the war there), Southeast Asia (following the tsunami) and Afghanistan.
I had a lot of thoughts, actually, immediately following the talk, but I neglected to write most of it down, so it's all faded away. This is the only thing I did write down, a couple days after seeing him:
In answering a question about how sensitive he is to the desires/wishes of his subjects/their family in terms of whether or not he publishes an image, he talks about Staff Sgt. Larry Rougle who was killed during Operation Rock Avalanche. Rougle's wife had seen the film Restrepo which documents Rougle's death as his fellow soldiers see him go down and is about to be dragged off by an insurgent. But when Hetherington sent her (with ample warning as to what she would see) the still image to ask her permission to publish the still of him dead (which is included in the film), she was shocked and asked if it was in the film. He went on to say that Rougle's family was asked for permission as well, and in the end they agreed, but they asked if Rougle's face could be blurred. Hetherington ultimately followed a photographic convention that blackened the eyes out which the family okayed.
For me the interesting point of this is that:
1. It illustrated the difference between the moving image and the still image - something which Hetherington had touched on before.
The moving image provides context that allows you to understand the situation that surrounds moments in time, but the moving image doesn't necessarily allow you, your thoughts, whatever, to slow down enough to contemplate what it is you are actually seeing. In the film Restrepo, we see the reactions of Rougle's fellow soldiers, the reaction of his best friend, as they discover he's been killed, and that reaction becomes part of the moment, of the fact of Rougle's death. It's not just about Rougle's death, but it's also about their grief, their professionalism, their horror and shock and outrage, and also their common sense as they must assess their own security just as they surround Rougle's body and protect it from being carried away by their attackers. So it's not about only one thing: Rougle's death. It's about many things, and the camera is shaky, the voices are frantic, and it happens very fast - slower for us watching it on a screen because we have the chance to be removed and we are able to analyze what we're seeing, but even if it's not the lightning-speed the soldiers experienced, it's still fast, a handful of minutes of screen time in a film, and for the viewer it's over. The film moves on.
But the still image of Rougle lying dead on the ground lasts forever. The image forces us to live in that moment for eternity, Rougle frozen in death on uneven Afghan ground, and for the family members of a fallen soldier, I can see how that photograph is so much more awful and painful than those frenzied, kinetic moments in the film. He's an extremely thoughtful and very interesting man who has produced an incredible body of work. I'm glad I could see him.
He truly was a giant of a photojournalist - a man who lived behind rebel lines in Liberia during the 2003 civil war, who filmed for Human Rights Watch, who spent months in the Korengal Valley with Chosen Company under siege in Afghanistan, who documented and provided witness to the world over and over again of conflict and suffering and humanity. His accomplishments are too numerous to list, his impact is incalculable. His courage can only be respected and admired for seeking out difficult situations, for daring to go and be our eyes and ears, to bear witness to the ravages humans commit upon one another. In losing him, we've lost a great human being who had many years left in him of good work, of humanitarian work. I not only mourn his death, but what we will now never see - everything he would have shown us through his lens. Even today, I can still hardly believe that he's really gone.
There are so many articles and tributes, but I share only a very small selection, for my reference and yours:
New York Times: ‘Restrepo’ Director and a Photographer Are Killed in Libya
Washington Post: Tim Hetherington, Chris Hondros are killed documenting Libya fighting
The Guardian: Tim Hetherington: one of the finest photojournalists on the planet
The Guardian: Tim Hetherington - a retrospective in pictures
Vanity Fair: Tim Hetherington: A Vanity Fair Portfolio
Vanity Fair: A Loss in the Family by Graydon Carter
BBC: In pictures: Tim Hetherington
New Yorker: In Memoriam: Tim Hetherington
NYT Lens Blog: Parting Glance: Tim Hetherington
1000 Words Photography blog: The integrity of Tim Hetherington
Human Rights Watch: A Tribute to Tim Hetherington
Dogwoof Documentary and Film Distribution for Social Issue Films: Tim Hetherington, 1970-2011
Photojournalism Links: In Memoriam | Tim Hetherington 1970-2011 || Chris Hondros 1970-2011
--
In all this, it's important remember a few other things, as CJ Chivers writes: Almost Dawn in Libya: Chris & Tim, Heading Home.
--
You can see slideshows of his photographs at some of the links above, and you can watch Hetherington's last short film, Diary, here.
--
In the words of Michael Grieve: "He dug deep, in difficult places, against the odds."
Tim Hetherington, R.I.P.