Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington visited Columbia University to discuss their documentary Restrepo, that as you will know, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. For me, the most important part of their discussion was how they don’t define themselves within one box, “I write”, or “I take photos”, or “I shoot video”. Tim and Sebastian are extraordinary for pushing the boundaries of what defines us as journalists… they both use whatever tools necessary to tell the story. Part I of this series is Sebastian’s path to being a journalist and where the comparisons lie between conflict photographers and soldiers.
“Restrepo,” a film made by photographer Tim Hetherington and writer Sebastian Junger about a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan, was shown on the opening night of Sundance Film Festival on Thursday.
Tim Hetherington began his seminar, “The Documentary Hybrid: Photography & Filmmaking,” this afternoon with a statement he admitted was a little bit strange given the setting: “I’m not interested in photography, I don’t really care for it,” he said.
In 2000, a U.N. combat unit entered a deserted village near Shegbwema in eastern Sierra Leone — territory then held by the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel group infamous for its use of child soldiers and widespread amputations. The abandoned buildings were covered with cryptic and deranged drawings. Here and there were sentences, names, questions and statements — all of which made no sense to me at that time. Empty of life, the village was an eerie and suffocating place, and the drawings hinted at a deeper psychosis.
Viewing Tim Hetherington’s “Sleeping Soldiers” film raises questions about finding new ways to communicate the experience of war, much of which is not covered by the familiar images used by the news media.
Is the current style of photojournalism stale? Does the current trend for commenting on the aesthetics of photojournalism detract from the stories that photographers want to communicate? What can photojournalists learn from the art world?
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Comments from Gary Knight, Tim Hetherington, MaryAnne Golon, and Ashley Gilbertson.
Filmed on 22 May 2009 at VII Gallery, Brooklyn
Stephen Mayes introduces the discussion topics, including the motive and the intent of photographers who cover war, and the responsibility of the audience viewing the resulting images to learn, react, and engage. Tim Hetherington and Gary Knight continue by debating the crisis in photojournalism — is there one, and if so, what is it?
Tim Hetherington is a British photographer, writer, filmmaker and television journalist who has captured the chaos and tragedy of the Liberian civil war in his new book, “Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold” (Umbrage Editions, 2009). He has combined reflective, square-format documentary photography with oral testimony and memoir.
It may be the best photojournalism project we can’t show you: A powerful three-screen audio-visual presentation about the war in Afghanistan. The difficulty is that it requires a theater rigged with three projectors. So far, Tim Hetherington’s “Sleeping Soldiers” triptych has only been screened in one place, the 2009 New York Photo Festival.
Tim Hetherington first went to Liberia in 1999, and he’s been working there on and off since then. He has a new book that tells the history of Liberia in pictures, oral testimony, and memoir, and it’s a powerful tale of chaos and power. The title, appropriately, is “Long Story Bit By Bit.”
The child soldiers of Liberia have taken street art to another level. Tim Hetherington, winner of the World Press Photo of the Year in 2007, took these terrifying photos during the blood-drenched civil war over there a few years back. The childlike scrawls of rape, violence and intimidation are pretty grim, but it all gets out of hand when you see the cupboard with “room of pain” etched on it. We spoke to Tim about Liberia, child soldiers and the 90s Liberian graf scene.