Two weeks ago, I boarded a plane in Monrovia and flew back to New York via Atlanta. I arrived in Atlanta in an exhausted daze. The work I’d be doing for the past couple of weeks was physically and emotionally exhausting, and while transitioning between the USA and Africa is never, ever easy, this time it felt especially hard. As I walked around the Atlanta airport, I saw people from my photos, Ivorian refugees superimposed on the friendly Americans buying a coffee at Seattle’s Best, standing among piles of identical and immaculate brightly colored Lacoste shirts.

I thought of Tim Hetherington’s personal video diary.

Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.

He chronicles the difficult transition with disquieting grace and salience.

I often thought about his work while I was working. There are few people who I admired as much, whose way of doing journalism made so much sense to me, whose focus on individuals and on ideas translated visually with such poignancy and meaning. I was lucky enough to meet him in Liberia in early 2009 and interview him for a blog post. He recommended me for a couple of great assignments. While I was happy to have the work, I was even more pleased that someone whose work I admired so much had remembered me and recommended me.

I had a copy of Long Story Bit by Bit at my apartment in Monrovia. I showed it to friends and acquaintances often. When I left Liberia last October, I left it, along with a couple of other photo books, at a new art school.

When I visited in February, I flipped through the book while I was at the art school. The spine was creased and the pages  showed signs of being handled. I was glad to see that – to see the students had been looking at this amazing book, and looking often.

IMG 2431 Tim Hetherington died in an RPG attack in Libya today

The students loved some of the gorier photos, but not just those. We spent awhile talking about his still life of an orange, how that could tell part of the story too. And I remembered, again, what a masterful storyteller and journalist he was.

There was a drawing posted on the wall by one of the students,  based on one of Hetherington’s photos. I intended to email this image to Tim, but hadn’t yet gotten around to it.

IMG 0729AA Tim Hetherington died in an RPG attack in Libya today

4d9e0d6082e2537505d16cad4328387b Tim Hetherington died in an RPG attack in Libya today

Tim Hetherington died today in Libya. To say that he will be missed is an understatement. He was a visual pioneer, a dedicated story teller, and someone I deeply, deeply respected.

e3c5d157611b4ced659db4b5fd3f8151 Tim Hetherington died in an RPG attack in Libya today