Photojournalist and filmmaker John D McHugh led the discussion and brought out the contrasts between Winning’s regimented, orderly entry and exit from the country and Gilmore’s more chaotic, less regulated approach. Projections of both their work emphasized the surreal imagery of the civil war that nobody could have anticipated a year ago, as ordinary Libyans take up arms to defend their freedom.

Both journalists spoke of the frustration they observed from rebel soldiers about the lack of coordination and training among their ranks, and a great optimism from the people in the East of Libya, finally free of the yoke of Gaddafi’s regime.

The panel paid tribute to their colleagues and friends Tim Hetherington, Chris Hondros and Anton Hammerl who lost their lives covering the conflict in Libya, reminding us of the terrible dangers journalists face to bring us truthful accounts of events at the front line.

You can watch the event in full in the video below. The first 15 minutes are a rolling stream of Andrew Winning’s images projected in the Forum before the start of the event. Skip to minute 16 to watch the talk from the beginning:

The deaths of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya in late April were a grim reminder of the dangers that journalists face in covering conflicts like the one that has been raging in Libya.

Getting the best images possible means that photographers and video journalists in particular need to get hair-raisingly close to the action, often putting themselves in danger.

Reuters photographer Andrew Winning and video journalist Inigo Gilmore will speak at the Frontline Club about shooting on Libya’s front line. Presentations of their work will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A about the reality of covering events in Libya. The talk will be moderated by multimedia photojournalist John D McHugh.

British photographer Andrew Winning has been working for Reuters for 15 years. Twelve of these he spent in Mexico as the chief photographer there. He specialises in hard news, covering natural disasters, political and civil unrest as well as editing assignments and sports. Libya is only the second armed conflict he has covered, the other being President Aristide’s ousting in Haiti.

Haiti has also been a key country in Inigo Gilmore‘s career. After the 2010 earthquake, Gilmore covered the aftermath of the disaster for Channel 4, tracing the journey of an injured baby to a hospital in the UK and the eventual reunion with her mother. His films about baby Landina won him the RTS Television Journalism Independent Award.

John D McHugh‘s career spans the gap between photojournalist and filmmaker. His multimedia work from Afghanistan won him the 2007 Frontline Award and in the past he has worked for the Associated Press, The Guardian, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and Agence-France Presse. McHugh‘s experiences of embedding in Afghanistan with US, Canadian and Afghan troops has given him well-rounded insights on a very different kind of war. He spoke at the Frontline Club in 2009 about his work in Afghanistan. McHugh recently made a film about Bahrain during the Arab Spring, and has just returned from a month in Kandahar.