An Inside Look At The Life Of A War Photographer

Photojournalist Lynsey Addario has been to hell and back.

- Suzanne Driscoll

 

SHE’S BEEN SHOT AT, BOMBED, kidnapped, groped, and severely injured in a car accident. But when the call comes with an assignment to a dangerous part of the world, documentary photographer Lynsey Addario rarely says no.

What motivates a journalist to keep going back while risking one’s life? For Addario, “It’s a deep responsibility to the people who look at my work in newspapers and magazines. Our policy makers need to see what’s happening, and we have unique access to places where others can’t go because of security. With my years of experience and the tools I have, it would be very irresponsible for me to not tell these stories.”

Addario never imagined she would have a career in photography. When she was 13 her father gave her a Nikon FG camera and she was fascinated by the way light and the shutter could freeze a moment in time. After teaching herself the basics from an old “how to photograph in black and white” manual, Addario would sit on the roof and try to take pictures of the moon, or shoot flowers, cemeteries, and landscapes.

“I was too shy to take pictures of people,” she recalls. “One day a friend of my mother’s who was a professional photographer invited me to her darkroom and taught me how to develop and print film. I watched with wonder as the still lifes of tulips and tombstones twinkled onto the page. It was like magic.”