Tim Hetherington

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Tim Hetherington
TimHetheringtonFeb2011.jpg
Hetherington in February 2011
Born Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington
5 December 1970
Birkenhead, England, UK[1]
Died 20 April 2011(2011-04-20) (aged 40)
Misrata, Libya
Cause of death Ballistic trauma
Residence New York City, New York, United States[2]
Nationality British
Citizenship United Kingdom, United States[2]
Alma mater

Lady Margaret Hall (University of Oxford)

Cardiff University
Occupation Photojournalist
Years active 1996–2011
Known for Restrepo (2010)

Timothy Alistair Telemachus "Tim" Hetherington (5 December 1970 – 20 April 2011)[3] was a British-American[4] photojournalist[5] with work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads."[6] He was best known for the documentary film Restrepo (2010), which he co-directed with Sebastian Junger; the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011.[7] Hetherington was killed by shrapnel from either a mortar shell or an RPG fired by Libyan forces while covering the 2011 Libyan civil war.[7]

Contents

Early life [edit]

Born to Alistair and Judith (née Gillett) Hetherington, Tim Hetherington was raised in Southport, Sefton, where he attended St Patrick's Catholic Primary School.[8] Later he attended Stonyhurst College[9][10] and read Classics and English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford in 1989.[11] Shortly after graduation he received £5,000 from his grandmother's will, which enabled him to travel for two years in India, China and Tibet.[6] That trip made him realize he "wanted to make images", so he "worked for three to four years, going to night school in photography before eventually going back to college."[6] He then studied photojournalism under Daniel Meadows and Colin Jacobson in Cardiff in 1996.[12]

Career [edit]

Hetherington at a photo session in Huambo, Angola, in 2002

Hetherington's first job was that of a trainee at The Big Issue, in London, where he was the sole staff photographer.[12] Hetherington spent much of the next decade in West Africa, documenting political upheaval and its effects on daily life in Liberia, Sierra Leone,[2] Nigeria, and other countries. Hetherington was a photographer on Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback (2007). In 2006, Hetherington took a break from image-making to work as an investigator for the United Nations Security Council's Liberia Sanctions Committee.[citation needed]

Hetherington won the 2007 World Press Photo competition for his picture of a tired American soldier covering his face with his hand following a day of fighting in the Korangal valley, Afghanistan.[13] The work was made for Vanity Fair, for which he was a contributing photographer.[14] Hetherington made several trips to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 with writer Sebastian Junger; the two collaborated on the 2010 documentary Restrepo based on their assignment in Afghanistan.[15] The film received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.[16]

Hetherington received a 2009 Alfred I. duPont Award in broadcast journalism, and the 2008 Rory Peck Features award for his broadcast work, Afghanistan – The Other War, which was made in the Korangal Valley and aired on Nightline, a programme of ABC News.

Hetherington in July 2010

In 2010 he directed the short film Diary:

Diary is a highly personal and experimental film that expresses the subjective experience of my work, and was made as an attempt to locate myself after ten years of reporting. It's a kaleidoscope of images that link our western reality to the seemingly distant worlds we see in the media.[17]

On April 27, 2011, Hetherington was posthumously presented with the "Leadership in Entertainment Award" by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) for his work on Restrepo.[18] He was also posthumously awarded the Frontline Club Memorial Tribute Award on 23 November 2011, along with photojournalists Chris Hondros and Anton Hammerl for their exceptional contribution to journalism.

Death [edit]

In a June 2010 interview for The New York Times, when asked by photojournalist Michael Kamber about Infidel, the book he did with Chris Boot that was about to be published, Hetherington commented on the level of danger he encountered when working on it:[19]

The first time I went to Afghanistan, in 2007, the world was very much focused on Iraq. People had forgotten – and now we have come to accept – that the Afghan war was going out of control. When I got to the Korangal Valley, and there was lots of fighting going on, it completely surprised me. I was gobsmacked. At the end of October 2007, 70 percent of American bombs being dropped were in that valley, and the casualty rate was at 25 percent wounded. So the images I made were very action oriented. Photojournalism. Reminiscent of classical war photography. I did that because I wanted people to see that there was a lot of fighting going on. Anyway, I go back and the fighting sort of bored me. Because when you are in a lot of combat after a while, a lot of it – you know? If you are inside a base that's being attacked, like Restrepo was, you are in a fairly good position. The likelihood of you being killed was pretty low, unless they put a mortar on you.

Hetherington was killed while covering the front lines in the besieged city of Misrata, Libya, during the 2011 Libyan civil war. There appeared to be uncertainty whether he was killed by shrapnel from a mortar shell[7] or an RPG[20] round. The same attack killed photographer Chris Hondros and gravely wounded photographer Guy Martin. A source said that the group was traveling with rebel fighters.[20]

One report said "several Libyan rebels" were killed in the blast, and at least two other journalists survived.[21] Hetherington tweeted the previous day, "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO".[22][23]

Hetherington was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, survived by his parents, sister, brother, and several nieces and nephews.[24]

Just days after Hetherington's death in Misrata, the Libyan city of Ajdabiya renamed its largest square after him. Anti-Gaddafi protesters also held a march to the newly renamed Tim Hetherington Square in his honour. "We have named the square after this hero and I now consider Tim as one of our martyrs," Al Jazeera quoted a Libyan surgeon in the city as saying.[25]

Senator John McCain sent two American flags to a memorial service in New York, one given to the Hetherington family and the other given to Idil Ibrahim, "Tim's girlfriend of one year whose parents had emigrated from Somalia" according to one account. The flags were delivered in person at the service by four American veterans of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan, who had been "many times ... under fire with Tim" and Junger, who wrote the account of the service.[21]

Awards [edit]

Books [edit]

Exhibitions [edit]

Filmography [edit]

  • Sleeping Soldiers, 2009 [6]
  • Diary, 2010 [7]
  • Restrepo (with Junger), 2010

See also [edit]

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References [edit]

  1. ^ Siddle, John (21 April 2011). "Merseyside-Born Photographer Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  2. ^ a b c Spencer, Richard; Collins, Nick (21 April 2011). "Libya: British Photographer Killed in Misurata – Oscar-Nominated British Photographer Tim Hetherington and His US Colleague Chris Hondros Have Been Killed While Covering the Fighting in the Libyan City of Misurata, the Foreign Office Has Confirmed". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  3. ^ "Tim Hetherington" (Obituary), The Times, 22 April 2011, p. 70.
  4. ^ Staff (20 April 2011). "2 Journalists Are First American Deaths in Libya". World Watch (blog of CBS News). Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  5. ^ "This Man Is Not a Photojournalist". Photo District News. 2 August 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2010. 
  6. ^ a b c Brabazon, James (21 April 2011). "Tim Hetherington obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
  7. ^ a b c Staff (21 April 2011). "Oscar-Nominated War Photographer Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya Mortar Attack by Gaddafi's Troops". Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
  8. ^ Griffiths, Chloe (23 April 2011). "Body of Award-Winning Merseyside Photographer Tim Hetherington Moved on Aid Ship". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  9. ^ Gammell, Caroline (21 April 2011). "Libya: Tim Hetherington's Girlfriend Pays Tribute to her 'Timinator'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  10. ^ Tim Hetherington (OS) R.I.P. Stonyhurst College website
  11. ^ Press release (21 April 2011). "Tim Hetherington (1970 –2011)". Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
    "LMH is sad to learn of the death of alumnus Tim Hetherington, 1989 Classics and English, who was killed in Misrata on Wednesday 20th April, while covering the conflict in Libya for Vanity Fair."
  12. ^ a b Hetherington, Tim. "The Big Issue". Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  13. ^ Tim Hetherington, World Press Photo of the Year 2007
  14. ^ Contributing Photographer: Tim Hetherington". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  15. ^ Chivers, C.J. (21 April 2011). "‘Restrepo’ Director and a Photographer Are Killed in Libya". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2011. 
  16. ^ Tourtellotte, Bob (31 January 2010). ""Winter's Bone", "Restrepo" Win Top Sundance Awards". Reuters. Retrieved 20 April 2011. 
  17. ^ "Tim Hetherington's channel at Vimeo".
  18. ^ "IAVA to Honor Restrepo Directors Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington at Heroes Celebration"
  19. ^ Kamber, Michael (22 June 2010). "Restrepo and the Imagery of War". Lens (blog). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
  20. ^ a b Staff writer (22 April 2011). "Bodies of Two Photographers Killed in Libya Arrive in Benghazi". CNN. Retrieved 25 April 2011. "The journalists were walking in the front-line area at the end of Tripoli Street on the western edge of Misrata when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded, according to a town resident who wanted to be identified only as "Mohammed" for safety reasons." 
  21. ^ a b Junger, Sebastian, "Legacy: Hetherington Doctrine", Vanity Fair, 3 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  22. ^ Knegt, Peter (20 April 2011). "Restrepo Director Tim Hetherington Killed In Libya (Updated)". Indie Wire. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
  23. ^ Staff writer (20 April 2011). "2 Renowned Photojournalists Killed in Libya". CBC News. Retrieved 25 April 2011. 
  24. ^ Staff. "Tim Hetherington profile". Associated Press (via legacy.com). Retrieved 24 April 2011. 
  25. ^ Turton, Sue (22 April 2011). "Ajdabiya Honours Fallen British Photojournalist". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 23 April 2011. 
  26. ^ [1]
  27. ^ [2]
  28. ^ [3]
  29. ^ [4], The Rory Peck Trust, 20 April 2011, Libya (Winner, Rory Peck Award for Features 2008)"
  30. ^ Aperture Exposures Blog
  31. ^ "Foto8 - Home For Good Exhibition by Jon Levy, Foto8".
  32. ^ "Foto8 - Liberia Long Story Bit by Bit Exhibition by Tim Hetherington".
  33. ^ "Foto8 - Infidel Exhibition by Tim Hetherington".
  34. ^ [5]. Guernsey Photography Festival.

External links [edit]

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