Photography on the front line.

• Author: Majerol, Veronica
• Position: MEDIA - Lynsey Addario - Interview

For photojournalist Lynsey Addario, a day at the office means heading into the middle of the world's most dangerous conflicts. She shares some of her best photos--and war stories--with Upfront.

As a photojournalist covering conflict in some of the most war-torn and strife-ridden regions in the world--like Iraq and Syria in the Middle East and Darfur in Africa--Lynsey Addario has long accepted danger as part of the job. Still, one assignment covering the 2011 uprising in Libya shook her to the core.

"It was probably the closest I've come to death," she says. Addario was on the front line when she and three fellow New York Times journalists suddenly got caught in the cross-fire between rebel forces and troops loyal to longtime Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi. Addario and the others were captured by Qaddafi's forces and held captive for six days before the Times was able to negotiate their release.

"We were intermittently tied up, beaten up. The men were hit on the back of the head with gun butts. I was very aggressively groped," she says. "But I think to all of us, the worst part was the psychological fear that they instilled in us, constantly telling us, 'OK, now we're gonna kill you, now we're gonna kill you.' And when you're blindfolded and tied up, anything that happens to you is magnified and very terrifying."

Even when her life isn't threatened, Addario's job--which has included documenting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, ISIS in Syria, and child soldiers in Africa--can take an emotional toll. There's a code in photojournalism to not get emotionally involved, but it's a rule Addario sometimes breaks.

"Frankly, I'm a human being," she says. "I wouldn't necessarily help anyone in uniform or with weapons, but if there is a woman who is injured and I have a vehicle and I can drop her to the hospital, I will."

How does one train for one of the riskiest jobs in the world? Addario jumped into her career without any formal training in photography or journalism. Originally from Norwalk, Connecticut, Addario graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995 with a degree in international relations and Italian. A year later, she got her first photojournalism job at a small newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She spent eight months there before moving to New York and freelancing for several news outlets, including the Associated Press. That gig turned out to be a pivotal moment in her career.

"I had a great mentor, and he really taught me how to read light and how to tell a story with pictures," Addario says. "[Photography] is one of the few professions where apprenticeship and working alongside people with more experience is still very, very valuable. "

Pulitzer Prize

In 2000, Addario started photographing life under the Taliban* in Afghanistan, hiding her camera because the Taliban had banned photography. It was her first real taste of the grit and danger that's come to define her career. She's been a "conflict photographer" ever since and has won numerous awards. In 2009, she...