Tim Hetherington died in Libya this week.
A colleague called about 30 minutes after the news had gotten out and shared the news.
I didn’t know what to say.
Death often catches me off guard and my lack of responds makes me feel awkward and inhuman.
Hetherington knew the risk of being photojournalist covering war zones. He died doing the very thing that he had dedicated his life to. A life well lived. I am sad for his family and loved ones. But I can’t say that I am sad for Tim.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
I live days knowing that my time is limited. I try hard to make it count. I try hard to dedicate it to something that matters. I want to make sure that I die with a smile on my face and having done all that I could with the time I had.
What can you do today that would make it worth while?
Tim’s conceptual video, Diary, is one of the best piece of art I’ve seen this year (yes that includes everything I’ve saw during Armory Week here in NYC). His work made me cry, not his death. I am grateful that he was passionate enough, dedicated enough, curious enough, brave enough, to have spend his life creating. Maybe this is how it should be.
Diary (2010) from Tim Hetherington on Vimeo.
Sebastian Junger summed it up perfectly in the quote below for Vanity Fair:
“I know what you were thinking: What a silly way to die. What a silly, selfish, ridiculous mistake to have made. Don’t think that, brother. You had a very specific vision for your work and for your life, and that vision included your death. It didn’t have to, but that’s how it turned out. I’m so sorry, Tim.
Maybe Misrata wasn’t worth dying for—surely that thought must have crossed your mind in those last moments—but what about all the Misratas of the world? What about Liberia and Darfur and Sri Lanka and all those terrible, ugly stories that you brought such humanity to? That you helped bring the world’s attention to?”
You can read Tim’s last interview with Outside Magazine here.
