The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is investigating reports that award-winning war photographer Tim Hetherington has been killed while on assignment in Libya.
[SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN THE FCO IS REPORTED TO HAVE CONFIRMED TIM HETHERINGTON’S DEATH]
Details are scant but a representative for the UK photographer’s agency, Panos Pictures, said: ‘It’s on the news wires now. We don’t know the details.’
An FCO spokesman told us: ‘It’s very early. We are aware of reports and we are investigating further.’
News agencies, AP and AFP, also reported the death of Pulitzer Prize-nominated photojournalist Chris Hondros.
It is understood that Hondros has been badly injured.
Yesterday Hetherington, who is from the UK but lives in New York, wrote on Twitter: ‘In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling of Qaddafi forces No sign of NATO.’
Hetherington won the World Press Photo title in 2007.
Shortly afterwards Hetherington gave an interview to Amateur Photographer.
Speaking three years ago, he told the magazine: ‘Being a visual journalist and documentarian is a bit like being a chameleon – not with guile but with the ability to be interested in people and get close to them.’
He added: ‘I’m interested in communication. When photography stops becoming a tool for that, I will stop being a photographer.’
Hetherington was born in Liverpool. He studied literature at Oxford University and later returned to college to study photojournalism.
The photographer has documented social and political issues worldwide and spent eight years living and working in Africa.
He works as contributing photographer for Vanity Fair magazine.
In 2010 Hetherington won a Sundance Film Festival award for directing a film called Restrepo about soldiers in Afghanistan.
He won his World Press Photo title with a photograph showing a soldier resting at the ‘Restrepo’ bunker, named after a soldier killed by insurgents.
Both Hetherington and Hondros were born in 1970.
More details as and when we get them confirmed…
