PhotoBlog - guy-martin

Feb

2012

9:24am, EST

One year on, photographer Guy Martin looks back at the Arab Spring

Ed Ou / The New York Times via Redux Pictures

Photojournalists Guy Martin, left, and Dominic Nahr take cover behind a wall as anti- and pro-government protesters throw stones during a clash near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Feb. 3, 2011.

By Ed Kiernan, NBC News

LONDON — February 17 marks the anniversary of the Libyan uprising — a revolution that left photojournalist Guy Martin fighting for his life.

The 27-year-old was in a group of photographers caught in a mortar attack in Misrata on April 20, 2011. Martin was seriously injured and two of his friends and colleagues, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, were killed.

Martin's life was saved by doctors who then prepared him for a perilous evacuation by boat from the besieged city.

Ten months on and still recovering from his injuries, he spoke to NBC News. Watch the video below:

Guy Martin was badly injured while capturing the events of the Arab Spring. As Libya marks one year since the beginning of the country's uprising, Martin reflects on life on the frontline.

Martin had spent several months covering the Arab Spring, documenting the historic events in Egypt and moving on to the brutal civil war in Libya. His pictures documenting the unrest in Cairo's Tahrir Square have just gone on display in London.

As well as the chaotic scenes of violence, Martin prides himself on capturing the quiet, contemplative moments that give some context to the historical moments he has witnessed.

"Despite the physical violence, the risk that we put ourselves in, you have a duty, a responsibility to come out of those situations with pictures, with strong images that communicate what was happening on the ground," he says.

Guy Martin / Panos Pictures

Rebel fighters moved from house to house, back street by back street to fire on Gadhafi's forces. Here a rebel soldier takes cover in a stairwell as he prepares to fire on Gadhafi loyalists in the adjacent room, just a few meters away. Tripoli Street, Misrata, Libya, April 20, 2011.

Guy Martin / Panos Pictures

Rebel fighters run across an intersection that was frequently targeted by sniper fire. Misrata, April 18, 2011.

Guy Martin / Panos Pictures

Rebel fighters takes cover behind trees on the strategically important Tripoli Street in Misrata during a fierce battle for control of the road on the morning of April 20, 2011. Hours later Guy Martin was seriously injured.

The Last Days of Mubarak, an exhibition by Guy Martin and Ivor Prickett, runs at London's Foto8 gallery until March 10.

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Apr

2011

4:17pm, EDT

Two photojournalists are killed and two others injured in rocket attack in Misrata

It's an exceptionally sad day for the photojournalism community. Tim Hetherington, a British photojournalist and co-director of the documentary "Restrepo," and Chris Hondros, an American photojournalist with Getty Images, were killed by a rocket propelled grenade in Misrata. Two other photojournalists, Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown, were also injured. We are regularly updating our news story as new details emerge.

Reuters

Photojournalist Tim Hetherington is seen in this undated handout image during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine at 'Restrepo' outpost in Afghanistan. Hetherington, the co-director of Oscar-nominated war documentary "Restrepo," died in the besieged Libyan town of Misrata on April 20, 2011, doctors said. He was among a group caught by mortar fire on Tripoli Street, the main thoroughfare leading into the centre of Misrata, the only major rebel-held town in western Libya and besieged by Muammar Gaddafi's forces for more than seven weeks.

Phil Moore / AFP - Getty Images

Tim Hetherington, center, is assisted by Libyan rebels as he climbs down from a building after gunshots rang out from loyalist forces inside in the besieged city of Misrata on April 20, hours before he was killed in the city while covering the conflict.

We interviewed Hetherington here in January, after "Restrepo" was nominated for an Academy Award. He will be remembered especially for his work from Afghanistan and from Liberia, below, where he lived for several years. His work from that country was chronicled in the book "Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold". View a slideshow of Hetherington's work.

Tim Hetherington / Panos Pictures

Sekou, a young LURD (Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy) rebel sits in an abandoned classroom in Liberia in 2003. The infrastructure of the country collapsed during the four-year civil war which forced Charles Taylor, the President and indicted war criminal, to step down from office.

Chris Hondros is very dear to the msnbc.com staff and our viewers for his many regular contributions to our site's pages, and especially "The Week in Pictures." Earlier on Tuesday, before we learnt of the incident which led to his death, PhotoBlog had featured his photographs of the fighting in Tripoli Street, Misrata.

View a slideshow of his work from Libya and explore a retrospective of some of his best images.

See the video below to hear Hondros describe his motivation for doing such dangerous but important work and see several of his most compelling images.

2007: Photojournalist Chris Hondros of Getty Images talks about his life behind the camera, and his award-winning pictures from Iraq to Liberia that capture the moments in war-torn countries.

Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Above: A Liberian militia commander loyal to the government exults after firing a rocket-propelled grenade at rebel forces at a key strategic bridge July 20, 2003 in Monrovia, Liberia. Chris describes his work in Liberia and a funny story that resulted from the photograph above.

Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, paralyzed from the waist down, was treated later in the U.S.

Above: Samar Hassan screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, who lost the use of his legs, was treated later in the U.S.