“From Anton — and from two other photographers I came to know in Libya, Samuel Aranda and João Pina — I learned that photojournalism is not just about taking riveting photos and selling them to whomever will pay. It’s about becoming familiar with the world — paying attention not just to the who-what-when-where of a breaking story framed in the apposite image, but to the why. Photojournalists — at least the best ones, like Anton and Samuel and João — know that to seal the texture and history of a moment in an image, or to capture the struggles of the everyday in a subject’s face, you need to understand the stories and the forces of society behind them. Perhaps all journalists already know this. I’m sure all photojournalists do. But I didn’t. We sociologists may think we have a monopoly on the practice of sociology. We don’t.”
— Ryan Calder, a sociologist and correspondent for The Atlantic in Libya, pays tribute to slain photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who was killed in early April while on the ground outside Brega. Read the rest at The Atlantic (via theatlantic)
