IRP Fellow Says Goodbye to Beloved Colleague
By Christina Larson | April 21, 2011 | United States
News of war photographer Chris Hondros’ death last week has been met with an outpouring of remembrances dedicated to Hondros’ extraordinary talent and his commitment to family and friends.
As an IRP Fellow in 2001, Hondros traveled to the Niger Delta to shoot photos of the conflict-prone region.
During an IRP conference on covering Iraq and other conflict-prone areas in 2007, Chris discussed the challenges and dangers of reporting from war zones: "It's not really up to me to philosophize about how I wish the conditions on the ground were for journalists. To me, the most important thing is figuring out a way to cover it, which is what war journalists do all over the world."
IRP Director John Schidlovsky recently attended a memorial service for Hondros in Brooklyn, where family, friends and colleagues gathered to remember his life.
Among the attendees was Christina Larson, a former IRP Fellow who met Chris in the spring of 2007 at a reunion for IRP alumni in Washington, D.C.
In a memoriam piece for Foreign Policy, Christina describes how Chris mixed intellect with passion in everything that he did: “Chris was able to be both intensely present in the moment, as all war photographers must be, and yet forever thinking deeply and broadly about the long march of history, about the rise and fall of empires, and about the drama of individual human lives -- our passionate triumphs, dreams, struggles, and heartbreaks unfolding across a larger stage.”
She also talks about her friendship with Chris in an interview with Democracy Now. For Christina, Chris was an outstanding example of what happens when technical skill came together with courage and insight: “Chris also was someone who had—he was dedicated to telling stories over the long term…because he felt that it was really important that we see not just how something begins, but how it plays out.
“He wanted to show not just the guns and mortar side of war, but how it affected the other people in war-torn places.”
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