Week 5 Forum:

Lynsey Addario,

I find it interesting to see how Addario's views and instincts are slowly changing over the course of the novel.  As I get deeper into her story, it is clear that she is getting more and more comfortable with the violence of war and has even stated that she finds the streets of Baghdad more familiar, more of a home, than any place in New York.  Her reactions and anticipations have completely shifted from "fight or flight" to investigate and capture, running with ambition toward the violence when the sounds of bombs go off.

That being said, I am pleased by how she still stays humble when faced with new battles, still managing to be effected by the never ending human suffering.  Towards the end of the 7th chapter, she leaves Iraq and travels to Africa for a very different experience.  Rather than warriors fighting for their people and defending their rights, she witnesses a region of hopeless people who can do nothing more than wait for help they aren't sure is coming.

One of the strong ideas of photojournalism that Addario stresses is something we focus on in this photojournalism class as well.  Take photos first and ask questions later.  These have very different connotations when applied to different situations.  Usually, I try to get the picture and worry about getting information for a caption later.  Addario works to get the picture and worries about her safety later.

 One of the jostling events to take place was the bombing of a nearby bank in Istanbul, down the street from where she lived.  She wasn't used to being attack so close to her home base when not in a war zone.  However, it was still her nature to grab her cameras and run to document it, not dwelling on the fact that it could've easily hit her house, destroying all her belongings, even taking her life.  Seeing these basic techniques present in such dire situations puts prospective on my seemingly no pressure assignments.

Other than her own personal time and security, Lynsey Addario has had to sacrifice a lot of her personal relationships as well.  She tells of the hardships she goes through with her relationship in almost a more urgent manner than the retellings of her war zone experience.  It was hard for her to compromise her work for the interests of her boyfriend and in the end, couldn't find a way to make it work.  Yet, she seemed more happy than ever when she was finally free of grounding relationships.  She became able to take on assignments for months and months at a time, not having to worry about the interests of others, just focusing on hr career.

Darfur, Sudan: "I moved around the desert camp self-consciously, a white, well-fed woman trudging through their misery"(179).  It's already a struggle to have to witness the immense suffering in order to document it in history.  But to have to witness it in such blatant contrast to one's own great privilege must throw anyone to an entirely new level of self awareness about how indulgent the american culture is.

One of my favorite photos from this section is of a single mother and her two children, both conceived from rape.  I found it heart warming that despite the pain and horror from which these children were created, the mother still has the capacity to love and care for them as if they were birthed out of love as well.  It exposes a different side of the world that shows how capable these people are of withstanding so much.