Tim Hetherington Explained

Tim Hetherington
Birth Name:Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington
Birth Date:5 December 1970
Birth Place:Birkenhead, Cheshire, England[1]
Death Place:Misrata, Libya
Death Cause:Ballistic trauma
Burial Place:Brompton Cemetery, London, England
Years Active:1996–2011
Known For:Restrepo (2010)
Occupation:Photojournalist

Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington (5 December 1970  - 20 April 2011)[2] was a British photojournalist.[3] He produced books, films and other work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads" and was a regular contributor to Vanity Fair.[4]

He was best known for the documentary film Restrepo (2010), which he co-directed with Sebastian Junger. Restrepo won the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at Sundance Film Festival 2010[5] and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011.[6] Hetherington won various awards including the 2008 World Press Photo of the Year.[7]

He was killed by shrapnel from either a mortar shell or an RPG fired by Libyan forces while covering the 2011 Libyan civil war.

Early life and education

Born in Birkenhead to Judith and Alistair Hetherington, Tim Hetherington was raised in Southport, 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.[12] That trip made him realise 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."[12] He then studied photojournalism under Daniel Meadows and Colin Jacobson in Cardiff in 1996.[13]

Career

Hetherington's first job was that of a trainee at The Big Issue, in London.[13] He was their sole staff photographer,[13] photographing homeless shelters, demonstrations, dockers' strikes, boxing gyms, celebrities, etc. He was not fond of his celebrity assignments, wanting to focus on what he believed to be more serious stories. He spent much of the next decade in West Africa, documenting political upheaval and its effects on daily life in Liberia, Sierra Leone,[14] Nigeria, and other countries. Hetherington worked as a photographer on the films Liberia: An Uncivil War[15] (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback[16] (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.[17]

Hetherington made several trips to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 with writer Sebastian Junger, on assignment for Vanity Fair. They were embedded with a single U.S. Army platoon (Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team) serving at a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley. They filmed the 2010 documentary film Restrepo there,[18] and Afghanistan  - The Other War, which was broadcast on ABC News's Nightline programme. Hetherington's book Infidel is based on the same platoon. He also created a unique video installation called Sleeping Soldiers, first shown at the 2009 New York Photo Festival.[19]

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.[20]

Death

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:[21]

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.[22] There appeared to be uncertainty whether he was killed by shrapnel from a mortar shell or an RPG[23] round. One report said "several Libyan rebels" were killed in the blast, and at least two other journalists survived. The same attack killed photographer Chris Hondros, gravely wounded photographer Guy Martin,[24] and wounded photographer Michael Christopher Brown.[23] A source said that the group was travelling with rebel fighters.[23] Hetherington had tweeted the previous day, Hetherington survived the initial incident and was loaded into a van alive, but died due to excessive blood loss.[25]

Hetherington was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, survived by his partner, parents, sister, brother, and several nieces and nephews.[26]

Just days after his 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.[27]

Senator John McCain sent two American flags to a memorial service in New York: one was given to the Hetherington family; the other was presented to filmmaker Idil Ibrahim,[28] Hetherington's life partner and co-worker at Zeila Films, where he had served as head cinematographer / director of photography.[29] [30] The flags were delivered 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.[28]

Personal life

Hetherington was in a romantic relationship with Idil Ibrahim before he was killed during the Libyan Civil War.[31]

Awards

Books

Books by Hetherington

Books with contributions by Hetherington

Books about Hetherington

Exhibitions

Filmography

Films by Hetherington

Contributions to films

Legacy

The Tim Hetherington Grant is awarded annually by World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch to a photographer who has participated in a recent World Press Photo Contest in order to finalise a project on a human rights theme.[53]

Sebastian Junger's documentary film Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (2013), backed by HBO Films, is a tribute to Hetherington.[54] [55] [56] [57]

Hetherington's estate was represented by Magnum Photos.[58] He was preparing to apply to the photo agency before he died. His estate is now represented by Imperial War Museums.[59]

Tim Hetherington Trust

The Tim Hetherington Trust was set up in 2012 by Hetherington's parents Judith and Alistair,[60] with Stephen Mayes its executive director.[61] [62] Its website states its mission is "to preserve the legacy of Tim's professional life as a visual storyteller and human rights advocate" including "the support and nurture of new work that continues the ideals demonstrated by Tim with special emphasis on humanitarian and social concerns".[63]

Tim Hetherington Photobook Library

The Tim Hetherington Photobook Library is a library of roughly 1200 photography books at the Bronx Documentary Center, 614 Courtlandt Avenue, Bronx, New York. It is stocked with donated books—Hetherington's parents donated his collection, whilst Aperture Foundation, Radius Books, Eugene Richards and Peter van Agtmael have also donated.[64] [65]

See also

Notes

  1. News: Siddle, John. Merseyside-Born Photographer Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya. 24 April 2011. Liverpool Echo. 21 April 2011.
  2. "Tim Hetherington" (Obituary), The Times, 22 April 2011, p. 70.
  3. Web site: This Man Is Not a Photojournalist. Photo District News. 2 August 2009. 1 December 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20101213105736/http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/content_display/features/featured-in-print/e3i1a3369487512024d0298ea474d711c4e. 13 December 2010. dmy-all.
  4. http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/bios/tim_hetherington/search?contributorName=Tim%20Hetherington "Contributing Photographer: Tim Hetherington"
  5. News: Tourtellotte, Bob. "Winter's Bone", "Restrepo" Win Top Sundance Awards. 20 April 2011. Reuters. 31 January 2010.
  6. News: Tim Hetherington: one of the finest photojournalists on the planet. 21 April 2011 . 24 January 2015 . Xan . Brooks . .
  7. "Tim Hetherington, World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo of the Year "
  8. News: Griffiths, Chloe. Body of Award-Winning Merseyside Photographer Tim Hetherington Moved on Aid Ship. 24 April 2011. Liverpool Echo. 23 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. http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/news/?pid=14&nid=3&storyid=52 Tim Hetherington (OS) R.I.P.
  11. [Press release]
  12. Web site: Tim Hetherington obituary. The Guardian. 21 April 2011. James. Brabazon. 25 April 2011.
  13. Hetherington, Tim. "The Big Issue". Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  14. 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.
  15. "Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004)", New York Times. Accessed 3 July 2014.
  16. "The Devil Came on Horseback", 3Generations. Accessed 3 July 2014.
  17. News: Hetherington remembered - The National. 2013-05-03. The National. 2018-07-24. en-US.
  18. News: C.J.. Chivers. 'Restrepo' Director and a Photographer Are Killed in Libya. 21 April 2011. The New York Times. 2 May 2011.
  19. 2011-05-29 . Standing Close to Tim Hetherington's Sleeping Soldiers . 2024-04-22 . TIME . en.
  20. http://vimeo.com/timhetherington "Tim Hetherington's channel at Vimeo"
  21. Web site: Restrepo and the Imagery of War. Lens (blog). Michael. Kamber. 22 June 2010. The New York Times. 25 April 2011.
  22. News: Band of brothers: The lives and deaths of war photographers . 20 January 2019 . CBS News Sunday Morning . 9 December 2018.
  23. News: Staff writer. Bodies of Two Photographers Killed in Libya Arrive in Benghazi. CNN. 22 April 2011. 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..
  24. Philip Carter. Hetherington, Timothy Alastair Telemachus [Tim] (1970–2011)]. Jan 2015. 103791.
  25. Web site: Sebastian Doggart. 29 Jan 2013 . On the front line: a documentary tribute to Tim Hetherington. Guardian News and Media Limited.
  26. News: Staff. Tim Hetherington profile. Associated Press (via legacy.com). 24 April 2011.
  27. News: Ajdabiya Honours Fallen British Photojournalist. Al Jazeera. Turton, Sue. 22 April 2011. 23 April 2011.
  28. Junger, Sebastian, "Legacy: Hetherington Doctrine", Vanity Fair, 3 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  29. Web site: About Us. Zeila Films. 4 December 2013.
  30. News: Ibrahim. Idil. Tim Hetherington remembered by Idil Ibrahim. 4 December 2013. The Guardian. 11 December 2011.
  31. Web site: Idil. Ibrahim. 2022-03-27. Tim Hetherington remembered by Idil Ibrahim. 11 December 2011. The Guardian.
  32. "1999, Tim Hetherington, 2nd prize, Sports stories"
  33. "Tim Hetherington: An award-winning photojournalist who dedicated his life to covering conflict zones", NESTA. Accessed 29 June 2014.
  34. "World Press Photo, Tim Hetherington, 1st prize, Portraits stories"
  35. News: Tim Hetherington. World Press Photo. 2018-07-24. en.
  36. "World Press Photo, Tim Hetherington, 2nd prize, General News stories"
  37. "The Rory Peck Trust, 20 April 2011, Libya (Winner, Rory Peck Award for Features 2008) "
  38. "Aperture Exposures Blog Tim Hetherington Installation and Video on View "
  39. https://web.archive.org/web/20110427023022/http://iava.org/blog/photojournalist-tim-hetherington-remembered-honored-sebastian-junger-oscar-nominated-%E2%80%9Crestrepo%E2%80%9D "IAVA to Honor Restrepo Directors Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington at Heroes Celebration"
  40. Web site: Tim Hetherington awarded 2013 McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism . 23 September 2013 . 9 October 2015 . .
  41. http://www.newyorkphotofestival.com/site/?p=4364 "Foto8 - Home For Good Exhibition by Jon Levy, Foto8"
  42. http://www.foto8.com/live/foto8-at-the-new-york-photo-festival/ "Foto8 at the New York Photo Festival"
  43. http://www.foto8.com/new/on-display/host-exhibitions/1028-tim-hetherington-long-story-bit-by-bit-liberia-retold "Foto8 - Liberia Long Story Bit by Bit Exhibition by Tim Hetherington"
  44. http://www.foto8.com/new/on-display/host-exhibitions/1243-tim-hetherington-infidel "Foto8 - Infidel Exhibition by Tim Hetherington"
  45. Web site: Guernsey Photography Festival : Tim Hetherington. Liberia and Sleeping Soldiers . 2012-01-05 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120923034000/http://www.guernseyphotographyfestival.com/2010/page/tim-hetherington . 23 September 2012 . dmy . . Guernsey Photography Festival.
  46. http://www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en/exhibitions/in-afghanistan "In Afghanistan"
  47. http://www.openeye.org.uk/main-exhibition/tim-hetherington-you-never-see-them-like-this/ "Tim Hetherington: You Never See Them Like This"
  48. http://www.photofusion.org/exhibitions/tim-hetherington-infidel/ Tim Hetherington: Infidel
  49. https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/tim-hetherington-infidel-photofusion--exhibition-review-9685545.html Tim Hetherington: Infidel, PhotoFusion - exhibition review
  50. http://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/news-and-calendar/2016/09/infidel-exhibition Infidel Exhibition
  51. The film is available to watch at http://vimeo.com/18395855
  52. The film is available to watch at http://vimeo.com/18497543
  53. Web site: Tim Hetherington Grant . https://web.archive.org/web/20110925110241/http://www.worldpressphoto.org/tim-hetherington-grant . dead . 25 September 2011 . 13 February 2014 . .
  54. The film is available to watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYjh8Ue7IA
  55. "Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington – review", The Guardian. Accessed 29 June 2014.
  56. "Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? Th...", HBO. Accessed 29 June 2014.
  57. "Recalling a Chronicler of Combat as It Is: Junger's Film ‘Which Way Is the Front Line From Here?' on HBO", New York Times. Accessed 29 June 2014.
  58. 2015 . Tim Hetherington Visionary Award . . 162 . 7834 . 12, 13 . Incisive Financial Publishing Limited.
  59. Web site: 2022-01-24. Tim Hetherington. Imperial War Museums.
  60. News: How Tim's eye for a picture is still helping blind African children. 15 May 2013 . 7 October 2015 . Tom . Brooks-Pollock . .
  61. "Images of war captured in Tim Hetherington photo exhibition", Liverpool Echo. Accessed 29 June 2014.
  62. Web site: Tim Hetherington Trust unveils new award shortlist. 3 February 2015 . 8 October 2015 . Gemma . Padley . .
  63. Web site: Tim Hetherington. 8 October 2015 . Tim Hetherington Trust .
  64. Web site: Opening Celebration & Photobook Drive: Tim Hetherington Photobook Library . https://web.archive.org/web/20160609230144/http://bronxdoc.org/post/144345898715/opening-celebration-photobook-drive-tim . dead . 9 June 2016 . 14 May 2016 . 16 May 2016 . Bronx Documentary Center .
  65. Web site: Tim Hetherington Photobook Library Opens at Bronx Documentary Center. 13 May 2016 . 16 May 2016 . Stan . Horaczek . American Photo .

External links

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