One of the bravest and best practitioners of real-time war reporting was reportedly killed Wednesday in a mortar attack on the besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Award-winning war photographer and director Tim Hetherington was killed along with Getty photographer Chris Hondros in an attack that also wounded three other journalists, according to ABC News, for whom Hetherington has worked.
Tim Hetherington, as pictured in ABC story.
A colleague said other reporters in Libya had also confirmed Hetherington’s death. “Everybody is sort of looking at each other trying to figure this out. We are at a loss for words,’’ he said.
In recent years, Hetherington’s work has been a reminder that some of the best journalism of wars and conflict doesn’t come in the form of a newspaper article or even a TV news report or a book. He was a journalist who spent months at the front line of war in an effort to get behind the news of the day or even of the month, to get to larger truths in a way that can only be shown through the visceral medium of video.
Hetherington was extremely well-respected not only by fellow journalists, but by the soldiers with whom he often shared a bunker.
“He was almost an honorary OIF and OAF veteran,’’ the friend said in reference to the official acronyms for the two wars that have consumed the U.S. military for most of the past decade. “He was considered almost a member of the [military] service because he spent so much time getting to know us in the service.’’
Hetherington and author Sebastian Junger won the coveted Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival last year for their powerful film Restrepo.
The documentary , also nominated for an Academy Award, chronicles in harrowing detail how Hetherington and Junger spent most of 2008 dug in with the men of Second Platoon in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban. The film was named for one of the platoon members, PFC Juan Restrepo, whose comrades erected an outpost in his honor after he was killed.
“Up close and personal, Junger and Hetherington gain extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of backbreaking labor and deadly firefights that are a way of life at Outpost Restrepo,’’ is the way the Sundance website describes the film.
Hetherington—one of the best known photojournalists working today—also produced powerful pieces for ABC News’ “Nightline” in Afghanistan.
ABC News’ James Goldston, who worked closely with him as executive producer of “Nightline,” described him as “one of the bravest photographers and filmmakers I have ever met.’’
“During his shooting for the Nightline specials he very seriously broke his leg on a night march out of a very isolated forward operating base that was under attack. He had the strength and character to walk for four hours through the night on his shattered ankle without complaint and under fire, enabling that whole team to reach safety,’’ Goldston said in an ABC story about Hetherington’s death.
Hetherington was also doing an embed with an Army unit in Afghanistan when Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta risked his life in an effort to save some comrades who were under fire. For his selfless actions, Giunta became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam.
News of the today’s casualties first surfaced on Twitter and on the Facebook page of Andre Liohn, a French photographer who was apparently with Hetherington and Hondros at a Libyan hospital, according to news reports.
Chris Hondros's Twitter picture
Hondros has covered conflicts from Kosovo to Lebanon, Iraq to Afghanistan and many more, as senior staff photographer for Getty Images. His work has appeared in virtually all the major American papers and magazines. His awards include the Robert Capa Gold Medal, war photography’s highest honor, according to wire service reports. Those reports said a spokeswoman for Getty Images could not confirm that Hondros has been killed.
“Restrepo’’ is considered one of the best documentaries ever about war, in part because it illuminates one of the most wrenching and fundamental truths of combat: its unpredictability.
“Ever wonder what it’s really like to be in the trenches of war? Look no further. Restrepo may be one of the most experiential and visceral war films you’ll ever see,’’ the Sundance website says. “With unprecedented access, the filmmakers reveal the humor and camaraderie of men who come under daily fire, never knowing which of them won’t make it home.’’
