Tim Hetherington - Career

Career

Hetherington's first job was that of a trainee at The Big Issue, in London, where he was the sole staff photographer. Hetherington spent much of the next decade in West Africa, documenting political upheaval and its effects on daily life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, 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.

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. The work was made for Vanity Fair, for which he was a contributing photographer. 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. The film received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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