The film interestingly has her discussing how she had to fight her editors for the photo to be published. The editors were worried, she explains, about the fact that seeing this image on the cover of a newspaper might be the first time the woman’s family finds out that she had been killed. Addario argues (in our mind correctly) that the news-worthyness of an image of a civilian murdered by Russia’s bombs outweighs that risk. The image not surprisingly goes quickly viral, on covers of newspapers and social media, causing an immediate response from the public against the war.
The first dozen or so moments of the film are a fantastic argument for the importance of photojournalism. Without Addario and others like her on the front line we’d only see the war from civilians social media feeds, sources that one might be able to question.
Flashing back home, Addario is back with her family, dealing with the struggle of family life, something she describes with a joke, “Kids are so much harder than war.”
Beyond seeing the bang bang of the front lines from a photojournalists perspective with a doc crew behind her the films most fascinating moments are her at home with her husband and kids. Her husband Paul de Bendern, a reporter himself, is the stay-at-home dad putting the kids to bed and picking them up from school. The strain that Addario’s weeks away from home are putting on the relationship are shockingly clear, but Addario makes it clear she’s not quitting – or picking assignments closer to home anytime soon.
We both loved the film – so please listen in or watch our discussion on the National Geographic doc which is available on Hulu and Disney+ right now.
From NatGeo: Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynsey Addario has risked her life to capture the stark realities of war — from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, Love+War chronicles Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work is dangerous. She’s been kidnapped twice while on assignment in war zones — a cost she must wrestle with each time she leaves her husband and two sons to go on assignment. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your calling when it threatens everything you love.
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