The ever-increasing presence of visual images in every aspect of our lives signals a new relationship with photography. Visual communication is no longer the exclusive preserve of professionals with technical skill, privileged access and mystical vision. We are all photographers now and imagery flows between us as easily as conversation, and meaning can be found in even the smallest details of otherwise unremarked lives. Tim Hetherington put this at the core of his mission as he traveled the world and worked to find ever more effective ways to share the wisdom he found:

“I want to record world events, big History told in the form of a small history, the personal perspective that gives my life meaning and significance.”

This evening will gather friends and colleagues who worked with Tim to develop storytelling strategies, and discuss how these ideas have developed and evolved with new imagination in the years since.

Speakers:

Ged Naughton was one of Tim’s first professional collaborators in Africa 1999. Together they started to document amateur Liberian soccer in a project that evolved into “Healing Sport” that Tim published in 2002. Ged discusses the ethical issues they faced and shares rarely seen footage and stills by Tim from this time.

Nusee Cooper was a player with the Millennium Stars Liberian soccer team and provides a sharp counterpoint to Ged & Tim’s narrative about sport as a metaphor for the larger issues facing West Africa at the turn of the Century.

David Snider introduces the short documentary that he produced in 2002 in which Tim describes his “Trojan horse” strategy in Healing Sport that harnessed the story of amateur sports players to represent some unpalatable realities about conflict and its consequences.

James Hopkirk brings the evening up to date having recently completed his MFA in photography at LLC.  James is making a deep study of local politics in South London as a means to explore issues of national significance through the lives of Lambeth citizens.

Liza Faktor,, co-founder of Screen will talk about transmedia approaches to documentary storytelling and in the process deliver an update on the project she’s producing (or collaborating on) with the 2016 Visionary Awardee Dominic Bracco II

The event, taking place on the eve of the fifth anniversary of Tim’s death, saw the Trust bestow this year’s Visionary Award of £20,000 and a special mentorship on one of a shortlist of five artists and journalists. Stephen Mayes, executive director of the Trust, said the recipient of the award should be someone who “takes [Tim’s] ethos and develops it in a way to better understand the world”.

The evening began with a discussion with the recipients of last year’s Visionary Award, Kel O’Neill and Eline Jongsma. The American and Dutch duo’s project entitled The Ark traces the decline of the northern white rhinoceros through an immersive documentary that “explores how contemporary conservation tactics reflect Western attitudes toward Africa.” The piece follows armed rangers in Kenya who battle to preserve the last remaining herd, while also filming scientists in San Diego attempt to “de-extinct” the rhino using stem cell technology.

Eline Jongsma & @keloneill discuss their project @TheArkVR with Stephen Mayes of @TimsTrust #VirtualReality pic.twitter.com/anBxfFbWvR

— Frontline Club (@frontlineclub) April 19, 2016

The two-person documentary crew have worked together since 2009 and created their project through a blend of different media, including virtual reality. “We always like to choose a form that matches the content. The story is about humanity’s relationship with a technology we’re ambivalent about – stem cell – made using a technology we’re ambivalent about – virtual reality,” Jongsma said. “It was impossible to make this without the Trust,” O’Neill said, adding: “It’s an amazing honour.”

Mayes announced this year’s winner as Dominic Bracco II. Bracco’s ambitious project beat off stiff competition, including explorations of issues ranging from the Rwandan genocide and Ebola in Sierra Leone, to the poisonous water in Flint, Michigan. Bracco’s project, The Backs of Men, is set in the borderlands of Texas, Mexico and Honduras and through a combination of photography, video, and theatre, Bracco “attempts to break down the physical and societal borders we place around ourselves.” Mayes said the review panel were particularly impressed by the progress he had made on a seemingly impossible project.

Dominic Bracco II discusses his project The Backs of Men

Speaking via Skype from New York, Bracco said he had spent years working in Juarez, South Texas and Honduras, taking photos that “didn’t speak to the nuance of being there and being a part of it.” He described the £20,000 prize as a “game changer” that will help him find a space to perform theatre and exhibit photographs so that an audience can “experience the play but also other media.”

Bracco added: “Tim did so much for photojournalists. He was a great visionary who created amazing powerful work and was also willing to work with other people.”

.@StephenMayes of @TimsTrust discusses the work of Dominic Braco II, combining theatre & documentary film pic.twitter.com/o9YooVS7fp

— Frontline Club (@frontlineclub) April 19, 2016

Mayes then announced the winner of the inaugural Tim Hetherington World Press Photo Fellowship, awarded to Ghanaian photographer Nana Kofi Acquah, whose main area of interest is the history of slavery in Africa and how the rest of the world views the continent. “What the world sees of Africa is often a negative, stereotypical image,” he said.

Judy Hetherington, Tim’s mother, concluded the evening by thanking everyone who works so hard to honour Tim’s memory and promote his ethos.

The Hetherington family and the Tim Hetherington Trust invite friends, colleagues and everyone interested in Tim’s extraordinary life to spend an evening at The Frontline Club exploring his dynamic legacy through the work of artists and journalists who continue to expand his innovative approach to visual media. The evening will introduce new work by some familiar friends, as well as some hitherto unknown voices who are bringing fresh energy to today’s media.

We will present a first look at the virtual reality project ‘The Ark’ by Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, produced with support from the Tim Hetherington Trust and premiering simultaneously at Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The Trust will unveil the revised Tim Hetherington Fellowship, developed in association with the World Press Photo, and the evening will culminate with presentations by the five newly short-listed artists for the Visionary Award from the Tim Hetherington Trust. Frontline guests will be the first to learn the identity of this year’s winner, with an opportunity to question the jurors and the artist about the forthcoming project.

This event – taking place on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the mortar attack that took the lives of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros in Libya in 2011 – will introduce some new reflections on their lives and will offer dynamic insights into the work of a new generation of storytellers who are challenging our expectations of visual journalism in 2016.

An eclectic mix of friends and colleagues joined together at the Frontline Club on Monday 20th April, in celebration of two photographers that not only captured the realities of war, but also explored the frontiers of artistic imagery.

On the fourth anniversary of their death, an audience full of friends, family, colleagues and admirers remembered photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, with a reflection on their groundbreaking work, and a showcase of the work of others that they have inspired.

Stephen Mayes talks about Tim Hetherington

Stephen Mayes, executive director of the Tim Hetherington Trust, introduced the evening with the precursor: “In the spirit of Tim and Chris, we want tonight to be looking at growing and going forwards.”

Daniel Meadows, Tim’s teacher at Cardiff University, shared stories of the years he taught him at university, and explained that even from the start Tim was pushing the boundaries of multimedia storytelling. Playing the incredibly evocative ‘House of Pain’, a video of stills from a night Tim spent following staff at Monmouth Hospital A&E, Meadows painted the picture of a photojournalist whose work and ethos would go on to have a tremendous impact.

Self-styled ‘story-breaker’ Topaz Adizes then showcased his award-winning interactive documentary ‘The And’, and described the influence Tim had on him to break down and re-mould the traditional forms of photography and documentary.

Topaz Adizes discusses his multimedia project ‘The And’

“Tim always used to say, ‘How can we create new stories and break past paradigms to create new stories?’ That’s what he was very conscientious about, and what I have tried to do.”

Geoff Johnston, an artist and curator who shared a studio with Tim, shared with the audience some touching raw footage of Tim being interviewed by one of Johnston’s students about his project with a blind school in Sierra Leone after the civil war.

“I wanted to explore imagery and communication ideas, but I also wanted to explore the idea of war. In the project, you think you are in a very sweet story about the blind. But then in the middle of the story, this hammer comes down, and this kid starts talking about how he is blind because he had hot plastic dripped into his eyes during the war,” said Tim in the video.

Tim Hetherington’s legacy of experimental story-telling continues on with the introduction of the Tim Hetherington Trust Visionary Award, won this year by filmmaking team Eline Jongsman and Kel O’Neill, who joined the audience via video-link.

Paul Halliday, Tim’s friend and collaborator, shared some of his work that later influenced Tim as he was developing into a well-known photojournalist. Guy Martin, Tim’s friend and fellow photojournalist, also shared his latest work ‘City of Dreams’, and discussed the continuing evolution of documentary photography.

Each of the speakers shared their private memories with the audience, in an evening that celebrated Tim and Chris’s work and the legacy that succeeds them.

“This is a bitter sweet day,” said Aidan Sullivan, showing a video of Chris Hondros’ prolific work in war zones. As the audio recording of Chris’ voice said in the background: “I think you need a little bit of distance from these events [war]. History will decide which pictures endure.”

Watch and listen back:

The Tim Hetherington Trust invites you to celebrate the lives of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros with a review of new work by friends, colleagues and others who are continuing the mission to share important stories powerfully told.

April 20th marks the fourth anniversary of the mortar attack that took Tim and Chris’ lives. Tonight’s program will demonstrate their living legacy with an array of new work that will stimulate and provoke in the style we came to expect from them. Starting with Tim’s earliest experiments in multimedia the evening will unfold to show projects recently completed and work still in progress by recognised names and emerging talent, accompanied by discussion of how to harness the media for more effective communication.

Topaz Adizes, filmmaker, will talk about some astonishing film projects that he was developing with Tim in 2011 and how his creative work has since evolved.

Paul Halliday, friend and collaborator with Tim during his time with The Big Issue and now a lecturer at Goldsmiths College, will introduce the forthcoming “Urban Encounters” festival at Tate Britain and how Tim’s work will find a place nearly 20 years on.

Geoff Johnson, artist, curator and studio partner with Tim in the 90’s will talk about “Manorism” a current exhibition of international graffiti art and will describe the discussions behind Tim’s Liberian war graffiti and its continuing relevance.

Eline Jongsma & Kel O’Neill, winners of the inaugural Visionary Award from the Tim Hetherington Trust, will talk about their practice that is evolving to include filmmaking, interactive media and virtual reality media.

Guy Martin, photographer, friend and thinker will show some current work and discuss it in the context of contemporary documentary practice. How has Tim’s thinking influenced the picture and how is it developing?

Daniel Meadows, Tim’s teacher at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University will recount his last phone conversation with Tim which re-inspired his commitment to training and the importance of basic principles even as the industry changes.

We expect a provocative evening of images, ideas and words so please come to listen and share as we look back a their lives and forwards to what’s coming next.

Photo: Finbarr O’Reilly. Photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington works at a rally in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in Libya.

A decade on, what has changed, both in the way natural disasters are communicated and in the way the humanitarian industry responds to them?

For a two-part evening, in partnership with Christian Aid, we will be reflecting on the developments we have seen since the Indian Ocean tsunami and how communication around natural disasters has evolved.

1. Every time I see the sea

In August 2005, photojournalist Tim Hetherington was commissioned by Christian Aid to travel to India and Sri Lanka and produce a set of photos representing the organisation’s post-trauma, rehabilitation and rebuilding work, for a multi-media exhibition in London to mark the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

For the first part of the evening Joseph Cabon, senior photo editor who commissioned Hetherington, will present the images, many of which have not been published before. He will be talking to photographer Giles Duley about the use of photographic representation during difficult and testing times.

Joseph Cabon helped set up the photographic unit at Christian Aid more than 30 years ago. During his time with the organisation he has commissioned several hundred photo trips with a range of talented photographers, including well-known established names like Sebastião Salgado, Don McCullin and Chris Steele-Perkins.

2. Documenting disasters

For the second part of the evening we will be bringing together a panel of journalists and members of the humanitarian sector to examine how communication around natural disasters has developed.

We will also be looking at the way affected communities are now using social media to document unfolding disasters and how journalists are utilising this to gather information and represent on the ground community views.

Chaired by Giles Duley, a documentary photographer who has worked in Angola, Sudan, Nigeria, DRC, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Lebanon among others, covering humanitarian and conflict stories. He has partnered with charities such as MSF, Handicap International, MAG and EMERGENCY and his photographs have been published in The Sunday Times, Observer, GQ, Vogue and Esquire.

The panel:

Nick Guttmann is head of humanitarian division at Christian Aid. He has worked in the humanitarian sector for over 26 years and has significant experience at field, HQ and alliance levels.

Imogen Wall is a freelance communications consultant who focusses on policy, advocacy and use of communications technology in disaster response. She arrived in Banda Aceh six weeks after the tsunami and stayed for 18 months, working for UNDP and UNOCHA on both tsunami response and post conflict communications projects.

Brendan Paddy is the head of communications at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). He has led the media work of the DEC member agencies in the immediate aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Pakistan floods and the East Africa food crisis. Previously he has held positions at Amnesty International, Save the Children, Childline and Age UK.

Atika Shubert is an award-winning CNN correspondent based in London. She has extensive reporting experience in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. She was one of the first correspondents to report live from Aceh, Indonesia, the area closest to the epicentre of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Pictures: Tim Hetherington, Every time I see the sea

There were more laughs than tears as family, friends and colleagues gathered to remember photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 23 April.

Tim Hetherington’s mother, Judith Hetherington, was one of the people who spoke at the event.

The open discussion, Still Kicking – Tim Hetherington, Three Years On, included stories from Hetherington’s life and the influence he continues to have.

Hetherington – whose list of works includes the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo – was killed by shrapnel from a mortar shell on 20 April 2011 while covering the Libyan civil war.

“The influence of Tim’s work is undoubtedly too early to judge, but there’s no doubt Tim’s arrow fell too soon,” said Hetherington’s father Alistair Hetherington, reading a letter written for the event by Art Blundell, who worked with Tim as a UN investigator.

Between the anecdotes and stories, the night was broken up by clips from films that Hetherington worked on and influenced.

James Brabazon, who was Hetherington’s friend and collaborator, produced the film Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington. Speaking at the event, he said:

“There were some things that Tim failed at, and they were glorious, spectacular failures – and we’re all very glad he failed, because after them came truly stunning success.”

The audience laughed when Brabazon mentioned a project Hetherington worked on, to produce a Braille photography book, and another about a narrative feature science fiction film to be set during the war in Afghanistan.

“I think one of the dangers of making films like Which Way is the Front Line From Here? is that in retrospect, someone’s career looks like an inexorable victory march. It looks like every success inevitably follows on from the last success, and you forget actually that that process of creating great, permanent and enduring work, in there, things don’t work out.”

Hetherington’s partner, Idil Ibrahim, spoke to the audience via Skype. She said that when she would often spend time organising and structuring how to potentially execute projects, Hetherington often told her to just get out there and do it.

https://twitter.com/I_Am_Idil/status/459043164699897856

“One of the key takeaways that he’s kind of left with me in terms of inspiring me and moving forward, is that now instead of saying ‘Why?’ I usually just say ‘Why not?’” she said. “And through the last three years, the journey that I’ve been on, you know, has kind of always started with that question, ‘Why not?’”

Judith Hetherington, Tim’s mother, also spoke at the event. She said not an hour goes by without her thinking of her son. She noted that she has been navigating his business since he died, and she has learned a lot about him through it.

“In honour and in developing Tim’s legacy, we – Alistair and I – have been to many parts of the world, parts that we would not probably have gone to,” she said. “That’s enabled an enormous picture of Tim to open up to us, and we’ve seen a world, a perspective of life I think through Tim’s eyes, and that’s been extremely valuable, and it’s all going to live with me.”

In an interview after the event, Judith Hetherington said she thought it was a thought-provoking evening.

“I hope people have gone away thinking how they can be inspired by Tim’s work,” she said.

Donations can be made to the Tim Hetherington Trust through their website.

You can listen or watch the event here:

This year for the first time, the Hetherington family is inviting all Tim’s friends and colleagues to share their reflections on the anniversary of Tim’s death. It will be a free flowing discussion about Tim’s influence and continuing inspiration, including a sneak peek of Sebastian Junger‘s forthcoming film sparked by a conversation with Tim, a creative moment that is actually captured on film.

We’ll get an inside view of the Bronx Documentary Center founded by New York photographer Mike Kamber, fulfilling Tim’s vision for photography in the community. Judith Hetherington will talk about some of the things she’s learned about her son in the last three years and Stephen Mayes will discuss the ambitions of the Tim Hetherington Trust, including announcements about imminent activities in 2014.

We will also hear from close friends and colleagues Piers Dunn and James Brabazon who will talk about some of Tim’s less familiar attributes and Art Blundell, a fellow UN investigator, will talk about the meaning of Telemachus, Tim’s lesser-known middle name.

We’ll also hear from Christina Piaia, Chris Hondros’ fiancé, about his new book launching this month and other activities of the Chris Hondros Fund.

Please come, listen, talk and be inspired.

The event is free to attend, however, should you wish to make a donation to the Tim Hetherington Trust, please click here for further information.

Producer James Brabazon talks about Tim Hetherington’s life and legacy

“Why do young men go to war?” was asked again and again at the Between the Lines follow-up screening of Which Way is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington on Thursday 17 October at the Lexi Cinema. It was a question that occupied Hetherington during his lifetime and a question that director Sebastian Junger and producer James Brabazon aimed to discover about Tim in this powerful and moving film.

A very candid Q&A with the producer Brabazon followed the film – which covered the late Tim Hetherington’s career as a war photographer – whose honest revelations added an extra dimension to the screening.

“The essential issue is that young men find comfort in war. One of the unspeakable truths is that it’s fun. You can see at the start of the film, every single man is laughing,” Brabazon points out, referring to the opening scene where amongst the heat of the fires burning in the Libyan corridors there is a sense that the men who run around with their AK-47s are doing something fun. “That’s uncomfortable,” he adds.

“Somehow water always finds its course and there is something about the theatre of war that bonds young men like you don’t see anywhere else. Tim was interested to see why young men go to war. . .   And did he need to be there? No.

 

“But yet he finds himself at the front line, having a good time. It’s that vortex of violence.”

When an audience member asked Brabazon if Tim’s death compelled him to leave war reporting, we were even given a glimpse of his reasons for going. Contrasting himself to director Sebastian Junger, who decided to stop going in to report conflict, he confessed he felt he had a duty to show people what was going on.

“The way that [Junger] feels is that when you’re working in war, you think you’re putting yourself at risk, but in fact what you’re doing is endangering and putting at risk the lives of those people around you, that love and care for you.

 

“I felt that after Tim died, I really couldn’t stop. I felt somehow stopping would constitute a betrayal of our friendship,” he admitted.

 

“I’m not really very good at much,” he said after a searching pause. “There are lots of things that I can’t do. There is this one thing I can do, and when I get it right, I’m not bad at it. But I feel all we do after all is tell other people’s stories, and if you can tell people’s stories who live at the ragged, violent margins of society and you give those people a voice in a way that is translated so that other people can understand it – if you don’t do it, then who will? Because someone needs to, and I feel I can.”

His admission is something also seen in Hetherington throughout the film and you witness the intensity with which he interacts with the people he photographs and brings out the truth. “He made work to be seen,” said Brabazon, when asked about Hetherington’s legacy. “And he wanted to affect change.”

Sebastian Junger has gone on to found RISC Training – “Reporters instructed in saving colleagues” – as a response to a lack of medical knowledge among frontline reporters.

Between the Lines was a three-day festival that took place at Rich Mix from 1 to 3 March co-organised by DocHouse and the Frontline Club. In a series of follow up events we continue to explore the challenges facing documentary makers, investigative journalists and citizen reporters in the new media landscape.

Director Sebastian Junger and producer James Brabazon screened Which Way is the Front from Here – The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington, on the 7th October 2013 at the Frontline Club. Tim Hetherington was not only a close friend to both Junger  and Brabazon, but also one of the Club’s founding members and a former speaker. The screening was followed by an emotional and heartfelt Q&A.

Director Sebastian Junger (left) with James Brabazon. Photo: Pete Ford

According to the HBO synopsis, the film ‘traces Hetherington’s work across the world’s battlefields, to reveal how he transcended the boundaries of image-making to become a luminary in his profession.’

Covering his life from childhood, to self-discovery in India, to finding his photo-journalistic focus in Liberia, to his last moments in Libya, the film is a moving and loving tribute to a close friend of Junger and Brabazon. Using Hetherington’s own footage, it offers an not only an insight into his progression as a journalist, but also into the reasons why did he what he did. As he put it:

“I probe this idea: the who am I, what am I doing?”

In the Q&A session that followed the screening the question of the film’s focus was asked, with Junger replying that:

“I didn’t want it to be a film about Tim’s death. I wanted it primarily to be a film about his incredible life.”

Brabzon said that he saw there being a legacy for this film:

“I have lost count of the number of young photographers who say they got into this because they saw Tim’s work. If the work in this film inspires other people to approach their work in the same way, and the same spirit as Tim did, then for us that is a small success.”

The harrowing footage of Hetherington stepping in to save the life of a suspected spy in Liberia raised the debate on whether a journalist can ever justify participating in the events they are reporting.

Hetherington’s attitude to this is clear throughout the film, with him at one point stating that: “I’m a big white guy, I’m in your country, and for me to pretend otherwise is just stupid”. Brabazon added:

“The point is not whether you are being objective, but whether your work is credible and authentic.”

While Junger has stopped filming in war zones as a direct result of Hetherington’s death, Brabazon reached a “diametrically opposed conclusion…[feeling] somehow that it would be a betrayal of what Tim and I did together, to stop.”

Junger has gone on to found Risc Training – “Reporters instructed in saving colleagues” – as a response to a lack of medical knowledge among frontline reporters.

The film will be released in cinema’s across the UK on 11 October. More information about the film or details about upcoming screenings can be found the Facebook page, and you can view the trailer here: