Week 8 Forum

After reading through the second half of Lynsey Addario's book, It's What I Do, I found myself very moved by two particular chapters, that being chapter 9 and chapter 12. The reason that I found these chapters to be so compelling was because in chapter 9, we get to see a first hand account of what it was like to be in one of the most dangerous places in the Afghanistan war and in chapter 12, we get a harsh reality check when Addario brings up receiving emails that two of her colleagues have died. Between theses two, though, I would have to say that chapter 12 would have to be the one that really stuck with me overall. The reason I chose this chapter was because of the fact that for a good portion of the book we see a lot of the "heroic" sides of photojournalism and are sort of looking at things with rose colored glasses, but then chapter 12 comes along and forces you to really think about the risks that these men and women put themselves through for the sake of getting the story. The quote that really stuck with me from this chapter was "Instead of walking down the aisle with his beautiful Christina, he was carried down the aisle in a casket, his mother and his bride-to-be walking a few steps behind." This quote stuck with me because it shows you how much photojournalists risk in their line of work and how it affects those around them. Unfortunately this chapter didn't have a photo to choose from, but in the next chapter I think that the image of her son, Lukas, was my favorite photo because of what Lukas represented in her life at the time; being that voice in the back of her head changing the way that she would choose her assignments. Overall, I felt that this chapters change in tonality greatly allowed me to better appreciate the work that these men and women do for the purpose of educating the world.