A name synonymous with fearless photojournalism, Lynsey Addario’s poignant images transcend borders and cultures – capturing the raw essence of human struggle and resilience. This is her story.
Initially featured in Passions, Vol. 56, this article has been reformatted for the online sphere, exclusive only on VOICE OF ASIA.
A picture speaks a thousand words, so to use the written language to describe a photographer seems almost treasonous… however, the vocabulary is more than necessary, to describe the scenes of the world’s most dangerous war-torn zones within which Lynsey risks her life, just to get that award-winning, speechlessness-evoking snap.
A Pulitzer Prize recipient, the American photojournalist has captured a portfolio full of images that spotlight human rights issues – especially the role of women in traditional societies. While she is heralded back home, Addario faces a different reception in the places she forays. “I was blindfolded most of the first three days, with the exception of the first six hours. I was punched in the face a few times and groped repeatedly. It was incredibly intense and violent. It was abusive throughout, both psychologically and physically,” she revealed, of her time as one of four journalists (the only woman) held captive in Libya in 2011.
Addario has cheated death many times and is regularly in the firing line of an insurgent rocket. Yet she braves unthinkable places to document life behind ‘enemy’ lines, giving a face to the unseen, weaving human emotion into the cold, detached narrative of war. The photographer has been to Afghanistan when it was under Taliban control, and covered the conflicts in Iraq, Darfur, the Congo and Haiti. In these hostile environments she looks through a lens and takes aim at her subject. The difference is, her mission is to make a shot that captures life, not takes it away. She earns our respect for having the courage to report from places that no woman or man should be in, using her talent and risking her life to show us desolation that no-one should have to endure.
