0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some violent scenes, strong language
0:00:05 > 0:00:09and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:09 > 0:00:11What's interesting about war is that there's generalisations.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13But in going to these extremities,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16you see that even in these terrible times, in these terrible moments,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18in these terrible extremities,
0:00:18 > 0:00:19people are still human.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21I think that that, for me,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23is the redeeming factor of the human experience.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26No, that sounds too fucking bullshit.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Well, I think it was good. I think you were almost there.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32There's a lot of people that make kind of generic...
0:00:32 > 0:00:35No, I don't want to say "there's a lot of people".
0:00:35 > 0:00:37I think the important thing for me
0:00:37 > 0:00:40is to make a work that is connected to people.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42I like to...
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Oh, shit, sorry, man.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45LAUGHS
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Blah blah blah blah blah!
0:00:49 > 0:00:50CLEARS THROAT
0:00:51 > 0:00:54I'm good, I've just got to... Er...
0:01:01 > 0:01:04I think the important thing for me is to connect with real people.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07To document them in these extreme circumstances.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Where there aren't any neat solutions,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13or where you can't put down any neat guidelines -
0:01:13 > 0:01:15and say this is what it is about, or this is what it is about.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17It's not. Erm...
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I hope that my work kind of shows that.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22- Yeah, that was strong. - Yeah?- Yeah.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49CAR RADIO PLAYS
0:01:51 > 0:01:55# You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour
0:01:55 > 0:02:00# You're my saviour when I fall
0:02:00 > 0:02:04# And you may not think we will care for you
0:02:04 > 0:02:06# When you know down inside
0:02:06 > 0:02:09That I really do
0:02:09 > 0:02:12# And it's me you need to show
0:02:12 > 0:02:14# How deep is your love?
0:02:16 > 0:02:18# You love, how deep is your love
0:02:18 > 0:02:21# I really need to learn
0:02:21 > 0:02:26# Cos we're living in a world of fools
0:02:26 > 0:02:28# Breaking us down
0:02:28 > 0:02:32# When they all should let us be
0:02:32 > 0:02:36# We belong to you and me #
0:02:38 > 0:02:40So, which way... Which way is the front line from here?
0:02:40 > 0:02:42That way.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47# La la la la la la la
0:02:48 > 0:02:51# La la la la la la... #
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Jesus, I'm going to stay down! Fuck, look at that.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55LAUGHTER
0:02:55 > 0:02:57- Look at that... - INDISTINCT
0:02:57 > 0:02:59If we get shot at, just jump on it.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08GUNFIRE
0:03:10 > 0:03:13HEAVY GUNFIRE
0:03:19 > 0:03:22MEN SHOUTING
0:03:22 > 0:03:24LOUD EXPLOSIONS
0:03:24 > 0:03:26MAN LAUGHS
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Good?
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Crazy.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Yes, it's crazy.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36SHOUTING
0:03:36 > 0:03:38FIRES GUN REPEATEDLY
0:04:02 > 0:04:06SHOUTING ALL AROUND
0:04:28 > 0:04:31I risk my life for a lot of different things.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34As a documentary photographer I probe this idea the whole time -
0:04:34 > 0:04:37of what I am doing, and why am I doing it.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40A single photo isn't necessarily a story,
0:04:40 > 0:04:42so you have to ask yourself why you put yourself in that position.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44And I do it for lots of different reasons.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47I do it, also, for personal reasons.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49As much as I do it for the objective truth.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56In war, you see so many crazy things happening.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01You see all sorts of human emotions crystallise.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Reporting on these things that are very complex and political,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07it gives you an insight into human behaviour
0:05:07 > 0:05:12that imbues your reporting with a sense of meaning and significance.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14It's addictive in that way.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15Yeah.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21BIRDSONG
0:05:38 > 0:05:42As a photographer, you need to develop a way of working that
0:05:42 > 0:05:44suits your personality
0:05:44 > 0:05:46but also allows you to bring out the subject matter
0:05:46 > 0:05:49that you think is important.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03At the root of my work is really this whole idea of intimacy.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11I become deeply embedded emotionally in all the work I do.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Wow! She's a really bright character, uh?
0:06:16 > 0:06:17How old are you?
0:06:17 > 0:06:19MAN TRANSLATES
0:06:19 > 0:06:21- Nine years old. - Nine years old!
0:06:21 > 0:06:24What's her favourite time at school?
0:06:24 > 0:06:27- Tamil. - You seem very intelligent for nine.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Just keep looking here, and don't move.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33It is necessary, I think, in raising consciousness
0:06:33 > 0:06:36of serious political or social events
0:06:36 > 0:06:39to create something that works on a more imaginative level.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Something that will allow the viewer
0:06:43 > 0:06:46to engage creatively with the subject.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Can you see me? Hello!
0:06:55 > 0:06:57OK, we're going to swap now.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59You are going to come and sit here.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01For me, it's all about personalisation.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Often we see scenes of disaster
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and it's almost like we forget that the people imaged are individuals,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09with individual stories and lives.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12You don't? OK, no problem.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Ask him, "Was that painful?"
0:07:17 > 0:07:19- Yeah.- It was painful?!
0:07:19 > 0:07:20TIM LAUGHS
0:07:20 > 0:07:23That's the sad truth about photography!
0:07:27 > 0:07:30I got into photography because I got into travel.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34I lived in 12 different places in Britain.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37I never had community that I lived with.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43And what I do now is a reflection of that.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Because of my work,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47we moved around quite a lot.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53I don't say that we were... that the family was gypsies,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57but Tim certainly was brought up in a family
0:07:57 > 0:08:01that was used to living in different parts of the country.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05WOMAN: He was always very comfortable and confident with people.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08And I think that was one of his great gifts.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12That he could communicate at whatever level,
0:08:12 > 0:08:14whether it was children or adults,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17and in whatever condition.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19As an undergraduate at Oxford,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Tim had a very wide and enquiring mind,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27and was intensely interested in everything
0:08:27 > 0:08:30that took his attention.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34He finished his degree and went to India.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37After a year, we couldn't get back.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40I had three faxes in over two years
0:08:40 > 0:08:42from him from odd places.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49He was a person who seldom became a tourist.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55His mind and the interest led him really to immerse himself.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00That commonplace impulse was at the foundation of the rest of his life.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10It occurred to me that we were living in an image-based world,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13erm, and that that would be an interesting way
0:09:13 > 0:09:15to communicate with people.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Eventually, a friend of mine pointed out that
0:09:19 > 0:09:22if I wanted to do this properly I should go back to college,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25and there was course in Cardiff he pointed out on photojournalism
0:09:25 > 0:09:28and he said, "That's telling stories with pictures, right?"
0:09:28 > 0:09:32I thought, "Well, that's pretty... That's kind of what I want to do."
0:09:32 > 0:09:35As I remember Tim, in '96,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37he was a big, rangy fellow.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39Tall, thin, very affable.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41And he had a nice laugh.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43And a relaxed manner about him.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46But he was also, obviously, very bright. And he was also warm.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49My whole belief about photography
0:09:49 > 0:09:54is that it's about engaging with people.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56And Tim engaged with people with knobs on.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01I think he was willing to put himself in difficult situations.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03He did a piece about hospital.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07As it turned out he'd been 24 hours at A&E,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10which most of us wouldn't dream of doing at the time.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14It's a lot of dedication to spend 24 hours in that situation.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23FILM SOUNDTRACK
0:10:23 > 0:10:25It was a pointer to the way he worked,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and what he did later on.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46Tim embraced...
0:10:46 > 0:10:50And he was the only student that year who really got into it.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53He embraced multi-media.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58I think of him as, probably my first genuinely modern student.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00He saw, right from the word go,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04that the future wasn't going to be just about print.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21The future is about learning to work across many different platforms
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and many different audiences, in many different ways.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25It's about having a subject matter
0:11:25 > 0:11:27that you've immersed yourself in completely.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30And he had a way of being able to do that, that was remarkable
0:11:30 > 0:11:32and not many people have been able to do that.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Photography liberated me from the workplace. It made me free.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It would allow me to express myself.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01It channelled me.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04It made me free from a, kind of, destructive tendency that
0:12:04 > 0:12:06I guess I had inside myself.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08So, I could channel my energy somewhere.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18It made me free to move and I need to move, that's just how I am.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25It's OK? Yeah, you carry on, no problem.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28I love working with people.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32I think that I can move into diverse situations as a stranger,
0:12:32 > 0:12:33fairly easily.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36I spent the last many years doing that.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40How do you say "very good" in Tamil?
0:12:40 > 0:12:43- Alam.- Alam is good?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45- Very good?- Yeah, alam.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50Alam, OK, your English...alam.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52I know about five words of about 30 languages.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Alam.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59I find that instead of the interaction ruining
0:12:59 > 0:13:02the dynamic of the images, it actually break through that
0:13:02 > 0:13:07ice straightaway and allows you just to get on and start working.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10I mean, it's really obvious I'm there.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13I'm a big white guy, I'm in your country and for me
0:13:13 > 0:13:16to pretend otherwise is just plain stupid.
0:13:16 > 0:13:17It's nice to see, yeah.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21How do I say goodbye?
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Not goodbye, I'll see you again.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30- Foi du arum.- Foi du arum.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38OK, cos I'm going to walk off...OK, so, foi du arum.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Erm, nandri.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43THEY LAUGH
0:13:48 > 0:13:50The idea of becoming a journalist
0:13:50 > 0:13:53and illustrating my own ideas came about in '99.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59And that was
0:13:59 > 0:14:02when I found out about a group of footballer from Liberia
0:14:02 > 0:14:04coming to the UK on a football tour
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and they were ex-combatants who fought in the war in Liberia.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09Here they were, from one of the poorest countries in the world,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11visiting one of the richest and I thought
0:14:11 > 0:14:12that was a really interesting
0:14:12 > 0:14:14story about worlds colliding.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20And they said, "You know what?
0:14:20 > 0:14:23"We're looking for somebody to go to Liberia. Will you go for us?"
0:14:23 > 0:14:25And that's how it all began.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46When I went to Liberia it just blew me away.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50I'd never experienced a country like that before in my life.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56And it was two years after the end of the civil war,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59two years into the reign of Charles Taylor
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and I went to photograph football as one of the more positive
0:15:02 > 0:15:04things that was going on in Liberia at the time.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Heeling Sport was the first coherent project that
0:15:19 > 0:15:21I made as a photographer.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24I made it under the idea of Trojan Horses.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26The idea was, can we talk about things that people
0:15:26 > 0:15:32are reluctant to talk about by disguising them in other vehicles?
0:15:32 > 0:15:35And so, basically, Healing Sport was about war
0:15:35 > 0:15:37but it was disguised as sport.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01After working in Liberia, I went to Sierra Leone in '99.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03A rebel army, The Revolutionary United Front,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05the RUF had invaded Freetown.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10I went with a surgeon into the interior
0:16:10 > 0:16:13and we came across people that had been blinded by the rebels.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16So, I made a series of portraits of them.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21CHILDREN SING
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Many of the children lost their appearance.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27We have to take care of them.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Are you listening to me?
0:16:29 > 0:16:30- CHILDREN:- Yes.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36There was one girl, Safi, who had a rebel beat up her father,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39killed him and raped the mother.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42And then when she started crying, they melted this plastic
0:16:42 > 0:16:46and dropped it into her eyes and that made her to be blind.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55Tim's work at the Milton Margai School for the Blind
0:16:55 > 0:16:58was really pivotal to what
0:16:58 > 0:17:00happened next in his career.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09He became really invested in those children's lives.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19A lot of photographers, I think, are presenting their work like,
0:17:19 > 0:17:20you know, "You have to see this!
0:17:20 > 0:17:22The world needs to see this!"
0:17:22 > 0:17:24This, you know, moral outrage.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28For me, moral outrage motivates me but I don't see it as a useful
0:17:28 > 0:17:31tool to get people to engage with the world.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34I think that we need to build bridges to people.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56He didn't give a Western audience the images that they
0:17:56 > 0:17:58expected to see,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02of the worst stereotypes of what violence in West Africa means.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07What he came back with was a really in-depth, personal profile,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11not just of the horror that they'd been through
0:18:11 > 0:18:15but of the hope that they had of where they were going.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21What Tim saw in the blind school were the effects of war.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25He wanted to understand how it would be caused in the first place.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30And I think that what he went on to do in West Africa,
0:18:30 > 0:18:31when he came to Liberia with me,
0:18:31 > 0:18:35when he stepped into the middle of that war was to see very
0:18:35 > 0:18:40clearly who was perpetrating these acts of violence and why.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18I first met Tim because rang me up out of the blue and said,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21"Hi, you don't know me, my name's Tim Hetherington, I'd really
0:19:21 > 0:19:25"like to come to Liberia with you and take photographs of the rebels."
0:19:25 > 0:19:30Erm, and I was, kind of, taken aback.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34The idea of just suddenly taking Tim along and, you know,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36throwing that exclusive out of the window.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38It's like, "Yeah, sure, come along,
0:19:38 > 0:19:39"It's never going to happen, right."
0:19:39 > 0:19:42It was one of those meetings where things just clicked.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47And, you know, he's the same height as me, we had similar education...
0:19:48 > 0:19:51He came along to shoot video for the film that we were making
0:19:51 > 0:19:53but part of the deal was that he'd be able to shoot
0:19:53 > 0:19:57entirely his own portfolio of photographs.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00SOLDIER CHANTS: The official government of Liberia is our enemy!
0:20:00 > 0:20:03THEY SHOUT
0:20:04 > 0:20:07THEY SING AND CHANT IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:20:16 > 0:20:18In a way I felt guilty, you know.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21I mean, Tim had never been in combat,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25he'd never been on a front line in war like this before.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37I mean, he was totally unfazed!
0:20:37 > 0:20:41But then he didn't really know what was about to happen next.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11You can see, yeah?
0:21:13 > 0:21:15So, you think he's a good driver or rubbish?
0:21:15 > 0:21:17No, he's a good driver.
0:21:41 > 0:21:47The rebels from the North, the LURD, who Tim was travelling with were
0:21:47 > 0:21:53largely ethnic Mandinka and they felt really cast aside by Taylor's regime.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56So, to join up with the rebels
0:21:56 > 0:22:00would be to throw your lot in with
0:22:00 > 0:22:05a bunch of young men, teenagers at best
0:22:05 > 0:22:09and you're going to walk through some of the most traitorous jungle
0:22:09 > 0:22:11conditions that you can find anywhere,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15towards a regime that's one of the most feared regimes in West Africa.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Charles Taylor's regime was considered
0:22:18 > 0:22:23the source of instability for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25THEY CHANT AND SING
0:22:33 > 0:22:36The nature of the fighting in Liberia, it wasn't
0:22:36 > 0:22:38just two armies facing each other off.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42It was two groups of young men absolutely enamoured with
0:22:42 > 0:22:44the theatrics of war.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48They used the drama to instil fear
0:22:48 > 0:22:51but they also used it to give themselves courage.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56And the effect that that has on you...is terrifying!
0:22:59 > 0:23:01HE SPEAKS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:23:01 > 0:23:05It's, kind of, strange doing a job where you're going out
0:23:05 > 0:23:07and you're looking for fighting.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13I remember in Liberia going down a road
0:23:13 > 0:23:15and there was fucking heavy fighting up there.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19There was shelling, bombing and I'm like, we're walking that way?
0:23:19 > 0:23:22It's like two corners and we're walking there,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24are we fucking insane!?
0:23:25 > 0:23:27GUNSHOTS
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Down, down, down, down, down...
0:23:36 > 0:23:40GUNSHOTS
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Oh, fuck!
0:23:42 > 0:23:43GUNSHOTS
0:23:45 > 0:23:46You really think,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50"Man, you wanted this and now it's just gone too far.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53"You're really fucked in there, you're going to end up dead.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57"You've let everybody down and just for what?
0:23:57 > 0:23:58"For a picture, you know?"
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And that's very frightening, that's the ultimate loss of control.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08HEAVY GUNSHOTS
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Tim was just in it!
0:24:15 > 0:24:21There comes a point where that just is your reality that stops
0:24:21 > 0:24:24becoming weird and different.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It's just what you're living and breathing at that moment.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33GUNSHOTS
0:24:37 > 0:24:39Oh, fuck, I'm fucking tired.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44You really don't know how you're going to react in a combat zone
0:24:44 > 0:24:49and I reacted OK, when it first happened to me
0:24:49 > 0:24:52and I can, kind of, keep my head together.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56I think I just have the ability to go,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59"OK, I've got to do this fucking shit, I hate this shit, OK,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"Click that side of the brain off." I can just do that.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07And I looked at Tim and I thought, you know, "He's cool."
0:25:07 > 0:25:09I'd spent so long working there alone, and suddenly
0:25:09 > 0:25:12I was there with someone who really had his shit together,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14who really knew what he was doing,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18who was filming great stuff, taking amazing pictures, and to get...
0:25:20 > 0:25:22..both video and stills,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26but really good, that's hard.
0:25:26 > 0:25:27That's hard.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Not being so much interested in action
0:25:49 > 0:25:53or traditional war photography, what I've tried to do in the work
0:25:53 > 0:25:58was bring a quieter kind of reflection to images of conflict
0:25:58 > 0:26:01and I've done that by using a medium-format Rolleiflex.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06It's a square-based format which is suited to portraiture.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14The great thing about using those kinds of cameras in war,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16apart from the fact that no-one else was,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19the fact that you had to slow down and look for the moment,
0:26:19 > 0:26:24it's almost like he saw a different layer, visually, to the conflict.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42It changes the dynamic of my relationship to people.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44I look down into the camera at them. I'm very tall.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47If I put a camera to my face, it's like an object in a war zone,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50I stand out, I'm very threatening, so I changed the way that I worked.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53It also means that I can talk to people whilst I photograph them.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57So you hear some photographers who all say they never talk to people,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59that it's this objectivity thing.
0:27:00 > 0:27:01No, no, no, no. Stay, stay.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08You know what? I've got to talk to people.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Tim's work was not about war.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Tim's work was about human nature.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31There's this picture of a fighter about to head off to the battle
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and you recognise it immediately exactly for what it is,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37this moment of saying goodbye.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39It's this moment that speaks such a greater truth
0:27:39 > 0:27:42about what war does to people than seeing the action.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01I was documenting different things at different times
0:28:01 > 0:28:03but one consistent thing that I saw
0:28:03 > 0:28:05as I travelled around the country during the war,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09it was this war graffiti that had been painted by armed factions
0:28:09 > 0:28:11in houses that they'd taken over.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15And I started to document this.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29The names of people became very important,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32being able to trace where certain fighters were.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Taylor perfected a system of inversion in Liberia,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43where kids became killers, where women were carrying ammunition
0:28:43 > 0:28:47and so the graffiti, it sort of, for me, has all of that loaded into it.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53It was like these psychic scars of the war.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06I think they have far more power,
0:29:06 > 0:29:08for me, than some of the more gory images
0:29:08 > 0:29:10that were taken by press photographers.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Well, we've just come in from, we walked yesterday about...
0:29:24 > 0:29:26- How far?- About 35 miles.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28About 35 miles. Nothing to eat,
0:29:28 > 0:29:33we slept at Po River Bridge, about ten of us in a fucking sentry post,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35and then we just endured...
0:29:35 > 0:29:38fucking I don't know, 5, 10km of firefights
0:29:38 > 0:29:42to make it here to the beer factory and I'm pretty fucked.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45- Did you just have a refreshing drink?- I did!
0:29:45 > 0:29:48The beer factory's over there!
0:29:48 > 0:29:51- And how good was that refreshing drink?- It was fucking awesome
0:29:51 > 0:29:54but I can't wait for my first beer in the Mamba Point Hotel.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57We got to the beer factory,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01which the rebels had turned into their sort of headquarters,
0:30:01 > 0:30:05and they'd also converted the interior into a makeshift clinic.
0:30:08 > 0:30:14And after about an hour or so, Iron Jacket, deputy chief of staff,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17he decided that this doctor,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21paramedic, from Monrovia was a government spy.
0:30:22 > 0:30:23THEY SHOUT
0:30:43 > 0:30:45I turned around, I could see this happening,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49and I'd already filmed several executions in Liberia
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and I thought, "It's going to be another execution,"
0:30:53 > 0:30:55so I turned around and got it in a wide shot.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05Next moment, Tim comes in.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07He grabs the, um...
0:31:09 > 0:31:13..the gun hands of Iron Jacket,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16and starts negotiating for the guy's life,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19and just says, "Look, you know, this is the only doctor you've got,"
0:31:19 > 0:31:24and really just put himself directly in the path of this.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30They led the guy off. They didn't shoot him. And very shortly,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34he was back treating wounded at the hospital again.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Tim had this ability to...
0:31:40 > 0:31:42..just do very surprising things.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45You know, he didn't see a division between being a photographer
0:31:45 > 0:31:47or a videographer or a journalist
0:31:47 > 0:31:49or a humanitarian or a participant.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53He was just Tim. And that...
0:32:14 > 0:32:16It's very hard to find that.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28Tim was almost immeasurably affected by what he had seen.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33The horrors that had been perpetrated.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37It was something that sort of
0:32:37 > 0:32:39sat on his shoulder a bit, really,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43and it reinforced his attitude to...to the world.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49I remember him one saying to me, you know, "You're very rich."
0:32:49 > 0:32:52And I said, "Well, with what definition?"
0:32:52 > 0:32:55He said, "You are very rich because
0:32:55 > 0:33:00"you are able to control and determine your own life
0:33:00 > 0:33:07"and avoid the absolute devastation that I have seen overwhelm people."
0:33:09 > 0:33:10He was very forceful about it.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13He said, "No, no, no, you must understand.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16"We are all very privileged."
0:33:18 > 0:33:19You know, working at war,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23myself, Tim, other journalists
0:33:23 > 0:33:26develop mechanisms to cope.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30A lot of the time, I think Tim looks for refuge in his work.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32GUNSHOTS
0:33:34 > 0:33:38Striving, always to be the best and to get it right and to be different.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40GUNSHOTS
0:33:40 > 0:33:42I think that brought him a lot of comfort
0:33:42 > 0:33:44and it helped him to assimilate what he saw at war.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48MUSIC
0:34:00 > 0:34:03There were lots of atrocities committed during the war in Liberia.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05I witnesses all sorts of different things.
0:34:07 > 0:34:08But more importantly,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12what I witnesses were the power relationships that happened
0:34:12 > 0:34:17between the guys on the ground and the people directing it.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24I was interested in young men in power,
0:34:24 > 0:34:26young men and violence.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30I think the war is part of the hard-wiring of young men.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35And they are really ultimately used as tools for political process
0:34:35 > 0:34:37because of genetics and chemistry.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42MUSIC
0:34:54 > 0:34:58The interesting thing that I've recently come to understand
0:34:58 > 0:35:01is that the role of witnessing carries a strong responsibility.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06This is the only photograph that exists of the mortaring of Monrovia
0:35:06 > 0:35:08that killed over a thousand people.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14The leader of these rebels denied that his men had mortared the city
0:35:14 > 0:35:15and everybody said,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18"No, we have seen the picture. We've seen the picture."
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Suddenly, you realise you are part and parcel of this
0:35:23 > 0:35:26important historic process of coming to terms with what happened.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29MUSIC
0:35:33 > 0:35:35I decided, at the end of the war, to stay on in Liberia.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38It seemed that although the war had finished,
0:35:38 > 0:35:39my job was not finished.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42I felt that what Liberia needed
0:35:42 > 0:35:45was for people to really take part in the society.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48And I was, I lived and worked in West Africa for eight years,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50three or four of those in Liberia.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58It shows Tim's commitment. He went in and he stayed in.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01And he works as a film maker and as a photographer,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03as a teacher, as a mentor,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06as an investigator
0:36:07 > 0:36:09and as a humanitarian.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11HE LAUGHS
0:36:11 > 0:36:13OK.
0:36:16 > 0:36:17That's you.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19And me.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23'I have no desire to be a kind of war firefighter,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25'flying from war zone to war zone.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29'I have no, really, I don't really care about photography.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31'I have no interest in photography per se.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34'I'm interested in reaching people with ideas
0:36:34 > 0:36:37'and engaging them with views of the world.'
0:36:37 > 0:36:39Me, Tim. You?
0:36:39 > 0:36:41- Jama.- Jama?- Yes.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43So, Tim...
0:36:43 > 0:36:45EXPLOSION
0:36:48 > 0:36:49All right.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54- Jesus Christ.- What just happened?
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Oh, we were fucking walking down the hill...
0:36:58 > 0:37:00I think we were their targets.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03It was just right, very close over our head, incoming.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05I heard a kind of sniper or something. It was like...
0:37:05 > 0:37:07We heard five rounds or so.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10MUSIC
0:37:13 > 0:37:17HELICOPTER
0:37:24 > 0:37:27I had this idea of following a platoon for an entire deployment
0:37:27 > 0:37:29in Afghanistan.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31And I realised I needed to work with a photographer
0:37:31 > 0:37:34who was really comfortable shooting video as well.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39I needed someone who was in shape, who could carry a lot of gear,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42and who had been in a lot of combat.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Basically, I needed someone like Tim
0:37:45 > 0:37:46and then I met Tim.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01In my work as a photographer and film maker,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04I always look to be as close to the subject as possible.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07You're always looking for those moments
0:38:07 > 0:38:09when the machine breaks down,
0:38:09 > 0:38:10where there's cracks in it.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12And I think what happened to us,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15in terms of being given access into this remote valley in Afghanistan,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17was that people kind of forgot about us.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21And I think it was that persistence of going back and back
0:38:21 > 0:38:24that gave us such unique access.
0:38:29 > 0:38:30Hey, guys.
0:38:31 > 0:38:32How you doing?
0:38:32 > 0:38:35INAUDIBLE SPEECH
0:38:37 > 0:38:38Ah, you know!
0:38:38 > 0:38:39LAUGHTER
0:38:39 > 0:38:40Perfect day for a stroll.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43When Tim and I got into the valley,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47the things that soldiers evaluate are "Are you going to cause a problem?
0:38:47 > 0:38:50"Are you going to freak out during combat and need to be taken care of?"
0:38:50 > 0:38:52And finally, "Are you going to be, sort of,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54"nasty and political about all this?"
0:38:54 > 0:38:56And Tim and I were clearly not doing that.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Listen up.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00Today we're going to conduct a move in and contact
0:39:00 > 0:39:01in the village.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04I've got 11 US personnel.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Five A and A, one terp and Sebastian and Tim.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10Does anyone have any questions?
0:39:10 > 0:39:12INAUDIBLE SPEECH
0:39:13 > 0:39:16I think what was interesting was working with one platoon of soldiers
0:39:16 > 0:39:18in this valley in Afghanistan.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20In some ways, I could have been anywhere.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22You know, it could have been any war.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26I was looking at the experience of the American soldiers,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29I wasn't necessarily trying to say anything about a truth
0:39:29 > 0:39:32of Afghanistan or the truth of the political realities on the ground.
0:39:32 > 0:39:33WHISTLE
0:39:33 > 0:39:34In here.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37It was a very different kind of project for Tim to take on,
0:39:37 > 0:39:40for Tim to spend all of this time with American soldiers,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43because Tim's instincts would have been much more
0:39:43 > 0:39:45to just spend time with Afghan civilians.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49But what comes through is that war is difficult for everybody.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53MAN SPEAKS IN AFGHAN LANGUAGE
0:40:02 > 0:40:04If there was anything, you know, suspicious going on,
0:40:04 > 0:40:08would he be willing to tell us? Come up at any time to let us know?
0:40:09 > 0:40:11The world was very much focused on Iraq.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15And I thought that we would be walking around the mountains,
0:40:15 > 0:40:17we would be drinking cups of tea with elders.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20We'd occasionally get shot at and it would be pretty uneventful.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22But it was completely the opposite.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25GUNSHOTS
0:40:25 > 0:40:27SHOUTING
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Right over the fucking ridge, man.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31GUNSHOTS
0:40:31 > 0:40:34I was completely surprised by the amount of fighting going on.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36These guys were in a lot of combat.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39People really hadn't raised their heads up to what was happening.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41Oh, shit!
0:40:41 > 0:40:43- You good?- I'm good, I'm good.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46SPEECH DROWNED OUT BY GUNSHOTS
0:40:46 > 0:40:48He's still in there!
0:40:48 > 0:40:50GUNSHOTS
0:40:54 > 0:40:55Shit, man.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58GUNSHOTS
0:41:06 > 0:41:09During that time, what was interesting was that,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13not to belittle the fighting, but I got kind of tired of it.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16For me, whilst there is a certain amount of adrenaline
0:41:16 > 0:41:18to do with combat and filming that, I mean,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21for me the really important stories are being close to these men.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24That's what it's about. That's what, really, I'm there for.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26- HE GROANS - OK.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32- Welcome to the beauty parlour(!) - Yep.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Good morning. So... here we are in the, er...
0:41:40 > 0:41:43It's the equivalent to the barber shop.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45- This is the compere for the day. - What's about to happen, Tim?
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Er, I'm going to let this lunatic at me with a pair of clippers.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50I don't know why!
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Take one look at him - would you trust this man?
0:41:53 > 0:41:55What's the name of this particular haircut?
0:41:55 > 0:41:56It's called the High And Tight.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59For English purposes, it will be called the High And Mighty!
0:42:01 > 0:42:04- Oh, this is what they do to you when you first join the military?- Oh, no!
0:42:04 > 0:42:06- You want to see what they do?- Yeah!
0:42:11 > 0:42:15- Here he is, ladies and gentlemen. - How does it look? Pretty sexy, eh?
0:42:19 > 0:42:22My grandpa - he'll sit there and tell stories about World War II
0:42:22 > 0:42:25and shit like that. He doesn't tell stories about the war -
0:42:25 > 0:42:28he tells stories about the whorehouses in the different countries.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30THEY CHUCKLE
0:42:30 > 0:42:33"When I was in Calcutta, India, Jesus Christ!
0:42:33 > 0:42:36"Craziest fucking broads there you ever fucking met.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39"They do things that just blow your mind!"
0:42:39 > 0:42:41So, while you're in Amsterdam, Tim,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44are you going to go see the red-light district?
0:42:44 > 0:42:47It depends if my girlfriend comes with me or not!
0:42:47 > 0:42:48THEY CHUCKLE
0:42:51 > 0:42:52Oh, yeah, fuck!
0:42:55 > 0:43:00'The lure of a place like Restrepo inhabits a much more profound place
0:43:00 > 0:43:03'in young men than just, "Oh, I need some adrenaline." '
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Tim called it the Man Eden.
0:43:06 > 0:43:12'It was just, sort of, for the young male psyche, this easy place to be.'
0:43:14 > 0:43:17- What are we doing?- Well, we've found a new hole to dig in.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20You'd think after so many months of being here,
0:43:20 > 0:43:24we'd be fucking done with this shit but we're not, so...
0:43:24 > 0:43:27Filling sandbags on the side of a mountain,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30waiting to get shot at, while making fun of each other
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and eating bad food and telling bad jokes.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36It was a great place to be if you're a man!
0:43:38 > 0:43:40There was no social norms.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42I think that doesn't happen a lot in our society.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44Out there, it didn't matter how you were dressed
0:43:44 > 0:43:47and it didn't matter how you looked, how much money you made.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49It didn't matter how hot your girlfriend was.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53If you weren't filling sandbags, you were fucking wrong.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02One of the pictures I really like
0:44:02 > 0:44:04is what I call my Man Eden picture.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07It really isn't, like,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09a kind of war photograph.
0:44:09 > 0:44:10It's a very pastoral scene to it.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13It kind of brings up ideas of medieval paintings
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and kind of indicated that the work was going in another direction.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21As I stayed on, then I was starting to make these more nuanced pictures
0:44:21 > 0:44:25about men and war and these kind of relationships, the boredom...
0:44:43 > 0:44:46MEN LAUGH
0:44:46 > 0:44:47Stop!
0:44:49 > 0:44:51He's like a wild animal, guys!
0:44:51 > 0:44:53Fuck, dude! Ow!
0:44:53 > 0:44:55'They're just family.
0:44:55 > 0:44:56They're the best guys ever...
0:44:56 > 0:44:58That you could ever be with.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01You know, even the guys you don't like, you love 'em.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Even the guys you fight with, you argue with,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06you'd still die for 'em so how much can you hate 'em?
0:45:06 > 0:45:08Talking about dudes that, you know, work together
0:45:08 > 0:45:12and you think, 13 months - you start to fall apart.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15But the truth is, it's only brought us closer.
0:45:16 > 0:45:17Come on, Tim!
0:45:22 > 0:45:25Hey, Sebastian, grab these two cans and bring them down.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29'Tim had been in a lot of combat in Liberia
0:45:29 > 0:45:31'and I think one of the things he was'
0:45:31 > 0:45:33looking for after that experience...
0:45:35 > 0:45:40..wasn't the truth about combat as a form of conflict,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43but the truth about combat as a form of bonding.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46And what he saw with his camera,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50in this environment of killing and fear and hardness,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52was connection.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57My grandfather was a professional soldier.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59He fought right through the Burma campaign.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01He lost all of his friends.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03And I said to him,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05"Do you regret any of this? Would you change any of it?"
0:46:08 > 0:46:10And he explained it to me like this.
0:46:10 > 0:46:16He said, "War is the only opportunity that men have in society
0:46:16 > 0:46:19"to love each other unconditionally."
0:46:19 > 0:46:25And it's understanding the depth of emotion at war
0:46:25 > 0:46:27that Tim was fascinated with.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34HE MUTTERS
0:46:36 > 0:46:40MUSIC: "Buffalo Soldier" by Bob Marley
0:46:40 > 0:46:42# Buffalo soldier... #
0:46:44 > 0:46:46What's going on?
0:46:46 > 0:46:50We were down at the cemetery and a round hit me right in the head.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Knocked the shit out of me. Knocked me out for a minute.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55I heard somebody say,
0:46:55 > 0:46:58"We got a WIA. Steiner's been shot in the head."
0:46:58 > 0:47:00Then I heard somebody say, "He's fucked up."
0:47:00 > 0:47:04That's when I came to and told them I wasn't.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Just flashing blue spots in your eyes.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10- It's pretty good to be alive. Good day.- Come here, man!
0:47:10 > 0:47:15Yeah, that's... That ain't very nice to look at right there!
0:47:15 > 0:47:17That almost went through, you know?
0:47:17 > 0:47:19I'd be floating around with a halo and some wings.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Just drinking beers with the Almighty!
0:47:22 > 0:47:24THEY LAUGH
0:47:24 > 0:47:27You're going to hell. We're all going to hell!
0:47:27 > 0:47:30We commit premeditated murder on a daily basis. I mean, come on!
0:47:30 > 0:47:35Come on! It's not murder. It's war. There is a difference.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37'War is very confusing to soldiers.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40'It's so terrible when it's happening'
0:47:40 > 0:47:42and then you miss it so terribly when it's over.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47The experience of being part of a group like that
0:47:47 > 0:47:49is not reproducible in society.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Restrepo is a distillation of what Sebastian and I
0:47:58 > 0:48:00have really come to understand about young men and war.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06The war machine isn't just technology and bombs,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10missiles and systems and this kind of CNN TV-mediated world.
0:48:10 > 0:48:11The war machine is,
0:48:11 > 0:48:15put a group of men together in extreme circumstances
0:48:15 > 0:48:17and get them to bond together
0:48:17 > 0:48:19and they will kill and be killed for each other.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24At the end of the day, you realise they were all young men
0:48:24 > 0:48:27just put together on this mountain. All they were trying to do
0:48:27 > 0:48:30is survive and look after each other, so they all got back alive.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32That was it, really. Nothing to do with war.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Nothing to do with the politics.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50One day, it was this incredibly hot, boring day
0:48:50 > 0:48:53and everyone's asleep except the guys on guard duty.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55I mean, this is the ultimate situation
0:48:55 > 0:48:58where nothing's going on - you can just switch your brain off
0:48:58 > 0:49:00because there's no work to do as a journalist.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04And I see Tim scuttling around with his camera
0:49:04 > 0:49:07and he's photographing the soldiers who are asleep.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09I said, "Tim, man, what are you doing?"
0:49:09 > 0:49:11He said, "Don't you get it?" Of course, I didn't.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13I never did, often, with Tim.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15"Don't you get it?"
0:49:16 > 0:49:19And he said, "This is what the American public never gets to see
0:49:19 > 0:49:23"because any nation is self-selecting in the images it presents."
0:49:23 > 0:49:26We want to see our soldiers as strong.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28We don't want to know that they're also these vulnerable boys.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41There is something about those sleeping soldiers' pictures.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44The sense of, these are just kids, you know?
0:49:46 > 0:49:50And to see them stripped down and asleep in wartime...
0:49:51 > 0:49:55..conveys this sense of sending off young men to die.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00RAISED VOICES
0:50:00 > 0:50:03SUSTAINED GUNFIRE
0:50:05 > 0:50:07I returned to the Korengal Valley
0:50:07 > 0:50:10to go on an offensive combat operation and, during this time,
0:50:10 > 0:50:11we saw some
0:50:11 > 0:50:14very close fighting, where the American lines were overrun.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18251. The enemy's pushed up on the high ground.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I was with a machine-gun crew that managed to hold off one area.
0:50:21 > 0:50:22Fuck!
0:50:22 > 0:50:25'And then we ran up to a point where we thought the Scouts
0:50:25 > 0:50:26'were under attack.'
0:50:32 > 0:50:35SOLDIER WEEPS
0:50:35 > 0:50:36Goddamn it, man!
0:50:40 > 0:50:43- Sergeant, what happened? - Our guys just got overrun....
0:50:45 > 0:50:48..we lost one. Got two wounded right now.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51We're about to try and get them med-evaced out of here.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57I don't know what else to say.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01'What, for me, was the real tragedy
0:51:01 > 0:51:04'was seeing a young man who sees his best friend get killed.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07'Seeing that young man go through that was really upsetting.'
0:51:07 > 0:51:10I knew it was going to happen, because I had been in a war before,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13I know what it's like to see somebody die in front of you.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16But for them to see that, that's something you know that they will
0:51:16 > 0:51:18for ever live with.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21We're going to take those two wounded out. I want you to get back
0:51:21 > 0:51:25- to Eagles. You know where that's at? - Roger.- The drop over there.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27'At one point, during the ambush,'
0:51:27 > 0:51:31I was filming and a colleague of the sergeant who'd been killed
0:51:31 > 0:51:35came up to me and started swearing at me and told me to stop filming.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39- Go that way.- What's up? - It's over that way.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41They got his weapon and the fuckin' 240.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43- The bad guys?- Got a good picture?
0:51:45 > 0:51:47I'm going to fuckin' smash the camera off his fuckin' face.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51- Get the fuck out of here. - All right. Hey, let's fucking go!
0:51:51 > 0:51:54'Later on, he came up to me and said, "I'm really sorry
0:51:54 > 0:51:56'"for shouting. I understand you have a job to do."'
0:51:56 > 0:52:03But it was really strange to film people who I got close to,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05in such a, kind of, moment of trauma.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13'I remember, at one point, the Afghan Army tried to drag away
0:52:13 > 0:52:17'Larry's body and one of his friends started shouting at them -
0:52:17 > 0:52:22'"You can't drag off his body. I'm not seeing you drag his body off
0:52:22 > 0:52:23'"like that."'
0:52:55 > 0:53:00'You know, those were very traumatic events for me and, you know...
0:53:02 > 0:53:04'..you try to, kind of, digest them,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07'but it takes time to work over them.'
0:53:17 > 0:53:21It is not that traumatic almost getting killed, being in danger,
0:53:21 > 0:53:25it really isn't. Makes you jumpy for a while.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27But I wouldn't call it deep trauma.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32Deep trauma comes from the pain of others...
0:53:40 > 0:53:45..in the sense of being part of the thing that's hurting people.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49As a journalist, you ARE part of the machine that's hurting people.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54You are in a war, shooting images of people who are dead or dying
0:53:54 > 0:53:57or wounded or grieving. You are part of it.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01And it leaves you, in some ways, quite ashamed.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11RAPID GUNFIRE
0:54:24 > 0:54:26I just finished a 20-minute short called Diary.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29It's the first time where I have located myself in my work.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33It's an artistic rendering of what it feels like to do my job.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39It's, kind of, very disconcerting sometimes to feel you have lost
0:54:39 > 0:54:43the needle of what is..what is graphic, what is, you know,
0:54:43 > 0:54:44what is too far.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56RADIO TIMECHECK BLEEPS
0:54:58 > 0:55:01RADIO: 'You're listening to the BBC World Service for Africa.'
0:55:01 > 0:55:04'This is London.'
0:55:04 > 0:55:07'The film is a stream of consciousness,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10'where you flip between my personal life and my work life
0:55:10 > 0:55:12'and so you understand that this'
0:55:12 > 0:55:16multiplicity..these different realities that I flip between.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19LIVELY CHATTER
0:55:22 > 0:55:28We'll find a place where it's playing at a reasonable time.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30He has all of these scenes back in his home life,
0:55:30 > 0:55:32where he is talking to people,
0:55:32 > 0:55:34talking to his girlfriend,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36walking around in a field.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38But you can see that his mind is actually in another place.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46HE CONVERSES WITH CHILD
0:55:52 > 0:55:56After a while, war becomes normality...
0:55:56 > 0:55:58..and the hard part is not about going to war,
0:55:58 > 0:56:00it is about coming back home.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03This is England. Early autumn. Look at it.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15'I think, in the end, he drove himself into a welter of indecision.'
0:56:15 > 0:56:17I remember he once said
0:56:17 > 0:56:20to Judith and me... He was bemoaning the fact that he
0:56:20 > 0:56:24wasn't married and really couldn't understand why not.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32'When we said, "Well, when you are not here, you are in Liberia
0:56:32 > 0:56:36"or you are in the Korengal Valley or somewhere equally dangerous
0:56:36 > 0:56:40"and you come home and you are, by degrees, damaged or undamaged
0:56:40 > 0:56:44"and then, you are here for a month, at most, and then somewhere else
0:56:44 > 0:56:48"for another three months. Why are you surprised you're not married?"
0:56:51 > 0:56:55One of his deepest fears, I think, was that he didn't want to be alone.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Nobody wants to be alone. He wanted to have a family.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01He was trying to establish some kind of finality with violence,
0:57:01 > 0:57:05with combat, so that he could then move on to the complicated
0:57:05 > 0:57:12challenge of a really deep, committed relationship with a woman.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14- Hi.- It's the Queen of Somalia.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16- The President. - The President of Somalia.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20- It depends how I'm feeling.- Is this an official state visit?- Yes.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23Yeah? How do you find America?
0:57:24 > 0:57:26It is nice!
0:57:28 > 0:57:29'I knew from the first day'
0:57:29 > 0:57:31that I met Tim that I was in love with him.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35I couldn't recognise it right away, but I knew it and he did, as well.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37Walking around with him
0:57:37 > 0:57:41was almost like walking around with a set of, you know, ten eyes.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44He was always so inspired, you know.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46We could go to McDonalds
0:57:46 > 0:57:49and he'd probably find some kind of creative inspiration there.
0:57:49 > 0:57:55It was never-ending, and when I met Tim, he told me he was done with war.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Erm, I don't know, at the time, if I believed him,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03knowing, slowly knowing his body of work, but he was so clear,
0:58:03 > 0:58:05you know, "I'm done with war."
0:58:05 > 0:58:08He was ready to almost start a new chapter in New York.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13But whether he was done or not, I supported him.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18I don't know if I want to stay covering conflict any more.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22It's a very destructive thing to carry on beyond a certain age,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26not least because if you look at the ages by which conflict
0:58:26 > 0:58:29photographers get hurt it's usually as they get older
0:58:29 > 0:58:32because you're inured to the risks more.
0:58:32 > 0:58:33You know, I know when a story's good,
0:58:33 > 0:58:35and I know where a story's good,
0:58:35 > 0:58:37and where that is is usually in the most dangerous area,
0:58:37 > 0:58:40and I won't do any of the other stuff, I'll just go straight
0:58:40 > 0:58:42to where I think it should be. I don't know.
0:58:42 > 0:58:44- You got me at a low point. - HE LAUGHS
0:58:44 > 0:58:47I'll have a drink later, cheer up!
0:58:47 > 0:58:50I think Tim came out of Afghanistan
0:58:50 > 0:58:53and out of our close calls out there very much with
0:58:53 > 0:58:56the sense that it was time to stop the combat reporting,
0:58:56 > 0:58:59and he couldn't quite get himself to do it.
0:59:00 > 0:59:04He was on a cycle that, you know, eventually,
0:59:04 > 0:59:06I mean, weirdly, ironically...
0:59:08 > 0:59:09..landed us at the Oscars.
0:59:09 > 0:59:12This is our first time doing all this, we're first time film-makers,
0:59:12 > 0:59:15it's all a surprise for us, we're absolutely delighted and honoured.
0:59:15 > 0:59:18The most important thing for us is that the film is played wide
0:59:18 > 0:59:20across America, the people responded to it...
0:59:20 > 0:59:23'Our Oscar experience was quite surreal.'
0:59:23 > 0:59:25Erm, I think most of the time we were there
0:59:25 > 0:59:27we couldn't believe that we were there.
0:59:27 > 0:59:30I'm not wearing my body armour today but I think I should be,
0:59:30 > 0:59:33judging by the crowds and the amount of press here.
0:59:33 > 0:59:37I think it was very intoxicating to him and kind of alarming.
0:59:38 > 0:59:40'And, you know, we're working journalists, right?
0:59:40 > 0:59:44'So while this is going on the Arab world's in flames.'
0:59:44 > 0:59:46SHOUTING AND CHANTING
0:59:54 > 0:59:58By the time Libya came, Tim felt the need to get close to the stories,
0:59:58 > 1:00:00you know, get close to the current events.
1:00:00 > 1:00:03You know, the world was changing and we were on a red carpet,
1:00:03 > 1:00:05so far removed from reality.
1:00:07 > 1:00:11All of his colleagues were there, you know, and he was in a tuxedo
1:00:11 > 1:00:14in Los Angeles, it just, it just didn't feel right.
1:00:16 > 1:00:17He wanted a project,
1:00:17 > 1:00:20but I also think he wanted to understand something,
1:00:20 > 1:00:23the sort of self-referential idea about war,
1:00:23 > 1:00:27where soldiers in war
1:00:27 > 1:00:31see themselves in ways that are informed
1:00:31 > 1:00:34by images of other soldiers in war,
1:00:34 > 1:00:37and there's a conscious cycle of imitation going on.
1:00:37 > 1:00:40He just started to realise there was a feedback loop.
1:00:42 > 1:00:48The theatre of war in Liberia and the theatre of war in Libya,
1:00:48 > 1:00:53at opposite ends of Tim's career, were fundamentally connected by one
1:00:53 > 1:00:57really important question that Tim was trying to answer, which is,
1:00:57 > 1:01:00"How do young men see themselves at war - and why?"
1:01:26 > 1:01:32When he told me that he was going to Libya, I was incredibly apprehensive,
1:01:32 > 1:01:34and I said to him, "I have a very bad feeling about it.
1:01:34 > 1:01:37"I just have a bad feeling about the whole thing.
1:01:38 > 1:01:40"It's a dangerous sort of situation
1:01:40 > 1:01:43"and a dangerous part of the world at a dangerous time."
1:01:46 > 1:01:49And he said, "Well, you know, I've been in danger before."
1:01:49 > 1:01:52And I said, "Yes, I know, but you're going to be on your own in Misrata."
1:01:59 > 1:02:03'It was difficult to read the news about Libya,
1:02:03 > 1:02:06'and all the while knowing that Tim was there.'
1:02:08 > 1:02:11However, we were in such constant contact
1:02:11 > 1:02:14and we'd created this vision and narrative for the direction
1:02:14 > 1:02:17we were going into that, erm,
1:02:17 > 1:02:22death was not a part of, you know, the picture, despite the work.
1:02:24 > 1:02:26GUNFIRE, EXPLOSIONS AND SHOUTING
1:02:41 > 1:02:45We had a very explicit conversation about how dangerous Libya was,
1:02:45 > 1:02:48where I said, "Come on, Tim, you can do this work
1:02:48 > 1:02:51"without getting up to the front lines, you know.
1:02:51 > 1:02:54"Don't take the risk, this is not your story right now."
1:02:56 > 1:03:00But somehow, there is the other journalists going and there's,
1:03:00 > 1:03:01you know, three other people going
1:03:01 > 1:03:04and you sort of forget what your immediate mission is
1:03:04 > 1:03:07and you want to go closer and closer to where the action is.
1:03:20 > 1:03:22GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
1:03:25 > 1:03:28MEN SHOUT
1:03:31 > 1:03:33In a war you lose a lot of things.
1:03:33 > 1:03:37One of the things that you lose can be the original connection
1:03:37 > 1:03:39that took you there.
1:03:39 > 1:03:44I felt that they were not, you know, paying the proper attention
1:03:44 > 1:03:48and the proper respect to everything that was happening around.
1:03:50 > 1:03:53They were actually trying to get in front of the rebels.
1:03:59 > 1:04:01I think, me, I didn't realise
1:04:01 > 1:04:04what the danger was where we were, you know.
1:04:04 > 1:04:07Tim, I think, realised, because he was, like,
1:04:07 > 1:04:13looking at everything, like, with a face, like, you could tell he was
1:04:13 > 1:04:15aware of what was going on, really.
1:04:15 > 1:04:18MEN SHOUT
1:04:22 > 1:04:26The rebels that were with us, suddenly one of them fell
1:04:26 > 1:04:30and he was, like, he was shot in the head, you know.
1:04:30 > 1:04:31And we took him out.
1:04:31 > 1:04:33GUNFIRE AND SHOUTING
1:04:36 > 1:04:40And then, at that point, we looked at each other, all of us,
1:04:40 > 1:04:43like, I mean, I felt real danger to be there.
1:04:45 > 1:04:49And I think all of us, because we all decided to leave that place.
1:04:57 > 1:05:00And there was a side street, and we all kind of stopped at it,
1:05:00 > 1:05:05and it was this really eerie scene of this open truck, erm,
1:05:05 > 1:05:07filled with Kaddafi soldier uniforms,
1:05:07 > 1:05:11and they were all over the ground and there was a helmet,
1:05:11 > 1:05:15a green helmet with a bullet hole right through the top of it.
1:05:15 > 1:05:16Tim took a photo of it.
1:05:17 > 1:05:20And I liked that spot too because it was behind a corner,
1:05:20 > 1:05:22and I didn't like being on Tripoli street.
1:05:24 > 1:05:28And then there was just this huge blast.
1:05:28 > 1:05:30EXPLOSION AND SHOUTING
1:05:34 > 1:05:36There was a lot of dust.
1:05:36 > 1:05:41I saw seven, ten bodies lying at the same place,
1:05:41 > 1:05:44and I thought at that moment, "Oh, my God, they were there."
1:05:44 > 1:05:46GUNFIRE AND SHOUTING
1:05:56 > 1:06:00I thought Tim was OK. He was holding his leg but he was shouting,
1:06:00 > 1:06:03so... But Chris wasn't moving, wasn't speaking.
1:06:07 > 1:06:09I saw a pick-up car with two guys,
1:06:09 > 1:06:12and said, "Please, please, come, come."
1:06:13 > 1:06:18And they helped me to put their bodies into the back of the pick-up.
1:06:18 > 1:06:20Chris and Tim.
1:06:27 > 1:06:33Tim was still conscious, but getting dizzy, getting...
1:06:33 > 1:06:36losing consciousness, so I took his hand,
1:06:36 > 1:06:43just to make him awake, and to say, "Tim, come on. Don't fall asleep.
1:06:43 > 1:06:45"We are getting to the hospital."
1:06:51 > 1:06:54Whenever I talked to him, he was like that, like that.
1:06:54 > 1:06:59Like when you wake up someone who is sleeping, and...
1:06:59 > 1:07:01then falling asleep again.
1:07:04 > 1:07:07But each time he was more, like, going away.
1:07:11 > 1:07:15And at one point, he wouldn't wake up again.
1:07:20 > 1:07:22INDISTINCT VOICES
1:07:22 > 1:07:24Give them space. Give them space.
1:07:34 > 1:07:37Something very unusual happened to me on that day.
1:07:37 > 1:07:42There were some beautiful flowers outside the shop, and I...
1:07:42 > 1:07:44Chose some red roses,
1:07:44 > 1:07:46got back to the car, and...
1:07:48 > 1:07:51..I lifted the boot to put the red roses in, and I just...
1:07:53 > 1:07:56..I don't know, I just felt something incredibly...
1:07:58 > 1:08:02I just felt I didn't want to take the red roses home. I just...
1:08:02 > 1:08:05And I...
1:08:05 > 1:08:08And it's something I've never, ever done in my life before -
1:08:08 > 1:08:14I took the red roses back and I went and chose 12 white roses,
1:08:14 > 1:08:17and took them home and...
1:08:17 > 1:08:21When I got home, um...
1:08:21 > 1:08:24They were in my arms when I found out that...
1:08:24 > 1:08:26Through the Home Office, that Tim had died,
1:08:26 > 1:08:28and I just dropped them on the floor.
1:08:43 > 1:08:47The deaths of two outstanding photojournalists, Tim Hetherington
1:08:47 > 1:08:51and Chris Hondros, have caused enormous sadness, not only among
1:08:51 > 1:08:55friends and family but also within the entire community of journalists.
1:08:56 > 1:08:58Hetherington, aged 40,
1:08:58 > 1:09:01was a consummate professional who took the job of war reporting
1:09:01 > 1:09:04as seriously as anyone in the history of this business.
1:09:10 > 1:09:13No, I never thought that...
1:09:13 > 1:09:16Tim was going to be killed.
1:09:16 > 1:09:18It sounds naive to say that now.
1:09:18 > 1:09:21This is my mum and dad, with my book.
1:09:21 > 1:09:22What are you looking at, Mum?
1:09:22 > 1:09:26'People don't assume that, you know,
1:09:26 > 1:09:29'family members or people close to them are going to be killed,
1:09:29 > 1:09:32'even though they do have a very dangerous occupation.'
1:09:32 > 1:09:36- Oh, you! Stop crying.- No, it's good.
1:09:36 > 1:09:39- It's nice.- Yeah. - It's really emotional.- Yeah, good.
1:09:39 > 1:09:40- It's meant to be emotional.- Mm.
1:09:40 > 1:09:41'It was...'
1:09:45 > 1:09:47Yeah, it was...
1:09:47 > 1:09:48completely devastating.
1:09:54 > 1:09:57I went to Sebastian's house,
1:09:57 > 1:10:02and that's where I got the news, and I didn't believe it at first.
1:10:02 > 1:10:03I didn't believe it.
1:10:09 > 1:10:11It was so worth it, because...
1:10:12 > 1:10:16We didn't compromise in our relationship.
1:10:16 > 1:10:20So why would we compromise our passion and our work?
1:10:20 > 1:10:22And aspects of our lives that...
1:10:23 > 1:10:28..made us feel fully alive and fully realised human beings?
1:10:30 > 1:10:34I wouldn't have compromised,
1:10:34 > 1:10:35so I don't think he should.
1:10:41 > 1:10:45'I get an e-mail from a Vietnam vet that we had both met in Texas,'
1:10:45 > 1:10:49and he said, "I'm so sorry about your friend Tim."
1:10:49 > 1:10:52He said, "You guys, you know, with your...
1:10:52 > 1:10:56' "With your movie and your books, like, you really...
1:10:56 > 1:10:58' "You really came close to understanding a war." '
1:10:58 > 1:11:01We're going to war. We're going to war.
1:11:01 > 1:11:04'He said, "I'm worried this is going to sound callous, but...
1:11:04 > 1:11:05' "You didn't get all the way. '
1:11:06 > 1:11:12"The core reality of war isn't that you might get killed out there.
1:11:12 > 1:11:14"That's obvious.
1:11:14 > 1:11:17"The core truth about war is that you're guaranteed
1:11:17 > 1:11:18"to lose your brothers.
1:11:20 > 1:11:22"And now you've lost a brother
1:11:22 > 1:11:25"and you know everything you need to know about it."
1:11:27 > 1:11:29And it wasn't callous, what he said, it was...
1:11:29 > 1:11:32I mean, the truth can't be callous. It's the truth.
1:11:34 > 1:11:37And finally, I got it.
1:11:43 > 1:11:46HE CHUCKLES
1:11:58 > 1:12:02MUSIC: "Danny Boy" by Frederic Weatherly, performed by The Pogues
1:12:06 > 1:12:09# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes
1:12:09 > 1:12:13# The pipes are calling
1:12:13 > 1:12:15# From glen to glen
1:12:15 > 1:12:20# And down the mountain side
1:12:20 > 1:12:23# The summer's gone
1:12:23 > 1:12:28# And all the roses falling
1:12:28 > 1:12:29# 'Tis you
1:12:29 > 1:12:34# 'Tis you must go and I must bide
1:12:34 > 1:12:37# But come ye back
1:12:37 > 1:12:41# When summer's in the meadow
1:12:42 > 1:12:45# Or when the valley's hushed
1:12:45 > 1:12:48# And white with snow
1:12:49 > 1:12:52# 'Tis I'll be there
1:12:52 > 1:12:55# In sunshine or in shadow
1:12:57 > 1:12:58# Oh, Danny boy
1:12:58 > 1:13:00# Oh, Danny boy
1:13:00 > 1:13:02# I love you so
1:13:04 > 1:13:06# But if you come
1:13:06 > 1:13:10# And all the flowers are dying
1:13:11 > 1:13:14# If I am dead
1:13:14 > 1:13:18# As dead I well may be
1:13:18 > 1:13:21# Ye'll come and find
1:13:21 > 1:13:24# The place where I am lying
1:13:24 > 1:13:27# And kneel and say
1:13:27 > 1:13:31# An Ave there for me
1:13:32 > 1:13:35# And I shall hear
1:13:35 > 1:13:39# Though soft you tread above me
1:13:39 > 1:13:46# And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be
1:13:46 > 1:13:53# If you will bend and tell me that you love me
1:13:53 > 1:13:59# Then I will sleep in peace until you come to me. #