Greek American photographer killed in Libya

Two photojournalists -- Oscar-nominated filmmaker and photographer Tim Hetherington and Getty photographer Chris Hondros -- were killed on Wednesday after coming under fire in the besieged Libyan town of Misrata.

Hetherington, co-director of Afghan war documentary Restrepo, and Hondros were among a group who came under fire on Tripoli Street, a main thoroughfare and scene of fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Doctors at a hospital in Misrata had said Hetherington had died while Hondros was in critical condition. Getty Images later released a statement saying Hondros had died of his injuries.

Spanish photographer Guillermo Cervera said the group had been trying to leave Tripoli street when they came under fire.

“It was quiet and we were trying to get away and then a mortar landed and we heard explosions,” he said.

Hetherington, who won the 2007 World Press Photo of the Year award, co-directed with Sebastian Junger the 2010 documentary Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

His British family issued a statement saying they had learned of his death with great sadness and that he would be remembered “for his amazing images and his Academy Award nominated documentary Restrepo”.

The Greek American Chris Hondros, was a staff photographer for Getty Images News. After studying English Literature at North Carolina State in 1993 and conducting his graduate work in photojournalism at Ohio University, Hondros moved to New York to concentrate on international reporting. Since then he had covered assignments in Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, Iraq, and Liberia.

He was awarded a USAID Photojournalism Grant in 1999 and was a fellow at the Pew Fellowship for International Reporting at Johns Hopkins University in 2001. Hondros’s images have received dozens of awards, including honours from World Press Photo in Amsterdam, the National Pictures of the Year Competition, the Visa Pour L’Image in France, and both the John Faber award and Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club in New York. In 2004 Hondros was a Nominated Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography for his work in Liberia. He received multiple awards including the 2005 Robert Capa gold medal.

“Chris never shied away from the front line having covered the world’s major conflicts throughout his distinguished career and his work in Libya was no exception,” Getty said.

Source: Athens News