Lynsey Addario Quotes & Sayings

Mortars and artillery don't discriminate against gender. — Lynsey Addario

the Christian Science Monitor and the AP. I wrote to the photo desk of the New York Times several times, offering myself up as a stringer, and each time my e-mail went unanswered. I wrote directly to the New York Times correspondents based in India and asked if I could shoot anything for them. They told me they took their own pictures while on assignment. I would keep trying. I felt that if I could only shoot for the New York Times - to me, the newspaper that most influenced American foreign policy and that employed the world's best journalists - I would reach the pinnacle of my career. — Lynsey Addario

The truth is that few of us are born into this work. It is something we discover accidentally, something that happens gradually. We get a glimpse of this unusual life and this extraordinary profession, and we want to keep doing it, no matter how exhausting, stressful, or dangerous it becomes. It is the way we make a living, but it feels more like a responsibility, or a calling. It makes us happy, because it gives us a sense of purpose. We bear witness to history, and influence policy. — Lynsey Addario

I never want to regret the kisses I missed. — Lynsey Addario

To me, it's so much about doing your homework, going into a situation, getting to know the subject, making them feel comfortable, getting intimate access, getting access to all different aspects of people's lives so that I am essentially telling an entire story and not just a single image. — Lynsey Addario

There was a second dinner scheduled for the following night, and I was dreading the disapproving glances by these women who had never worked a day in their lives. I was still a woman, and I still cared what I looked like; no matter what I accomplished with my career, nothing eliminates those stinging insecurities you develop as a child or teen. — Lynsey Addario

I didn't know a single female photographer who covered conflict who even had a boyfriend, much less a husband or a baby. — Lynsey Addario

Sometimes when I am photographing a major news event, I am suddenly overwhelmed by helplessness. — Lynsey Addario

I do think my childhood is one of the fundamental reasons that I'm able to do my job. We were raised in this totally nonjudgmental family. We never knew who was going to walk in the front door. And as a journalist and a photographer, you walk into so many different scenes that you have to be open to everything. — Lynsey Addario

The women also put my life of privilege, opportunity, independence, and freedom into perspective. As an American woman, I was spoiled: to work, to make decisions, to be independent, to have relationships with men, to feel sexy, to fall in love, to fall out of love, to travel. I was only twenty-six, and I had already enjoyed a lifetime of new experiences. — Lynsey Addario

It was nice to be in my own country, where I didn't need a translator or a driver. Where I didn't need to figure out cultural references or what hijab I needed to wear to cover my hair. — Lynsey Addario

Every story takes its toll on me and leaves an impression on me. — Lynsey Addario

Family is such a fundamental part of Islam, and women run the family. I had to force myself not to impose my own definition of political and social freedom on women in Islam, and approach each story objectively. — Lynsey Addario

I got rejected from journalism school! — Lynsey Addario

Don't expect things to happen fast. Be empathetic with the people you are photographing. Don't be concerned about money. — Lynsey Addario

If I took a month off, I was likely to be replaced by one of the other, say, two hundred freelancers vying to get my assignments. If I took six months off to have a baby, I believed I would be written off by my editors. I was in a man's profession. — Lynsey Addario

I think when I started going to war zones and started covering humanitarian issues, it became a calling because I realized I had a voice, and I can give people without a voice a voice ... and now it is something that sits inside of me every day. — Lynsey Addario

He taught me to stand on a street corner or in a room for an hour - or two or three - waiting for that great epiphany of a moment, the wondrous combination of subject, light, and composition. And something else: the inexplicable magic that made the image dive right into your heart. — Lynsey Addario

Most people, when they meet me, one of the first things they say is, 'Why would you voluntarily subject yourself to war? Why would you go into these places where you know there's a risk of getting killed?' — Lynsey Addario

He spoke Spanish, English, Italian, and just enough of every other language to be able to charm women around the world. — Lynsey Addario

Stay in Latin America, learn photography, and make all your professional mistakes in Argentina," he said, "because if you make one mistake in New York, no one will give you a second chance. — Lynsey Addario

I had imposed unspeakable worry on my husband, Paul de Bendern, on more occasions than I could count. — Lynsey Addario

I'm constantly struggling. You know, the stories that I feel like I could cover, do the work that I want to do and being a mother. That's really where my struggle is - and being a wife and having a life - and for me it's really hard to find that balance. I'm always struggling to find that balance. — Lynsey Addario

One day I am at home, watching dramatic images of Iraqi Yazidis fleeing for their lives being aired nonstop on 24-hour news channels. Days later, I am there, staring at tens of thousands of displaced Iraqis and feeling a 35-millimeter frame cannot capture the scope of devastation and heartbreak before me. — Lynsey Addario

If people really saw what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, then they might be marching in the streets to end wars. But you know, I think that no one ever sees because we're not allowed to see, and we're not allowed to publish what we do see. So it's quite difficult. — Lynsey Addario

If publications want to publish images and stories from a certain person, they should put that person on assignment, cover his or her expenses, make sure they have access to security briefings and experts, someone to administer first aid, etc. — Lynsey Addario

because in a sense, our work was our life. It defined who we were, it wasn't just a job we did for a living, and I needed to hold on to that for as long as I could. — Lynsey Addario

With photography, I always think that it's not good enough. — Lynsey Addario

I just immediately connect everything to the wars I have been covering overseas, and that's not the case back home. I wrongly assumed all Americans at home were as consumed with our troops in Afghanistan as I was abroad. — Lynsey Addario

I interviewed dozens and dozens of African women who had endured more hardship and trauma than most Westerners even read about, and they ploughed on. I often openly cried during interviews, unable to process this violence and hatred towards women I was witnessing. — Lynsey Addario

I wanted to make people think, to open their minds, to give them a full picture of what was happening in Iraq so they can decide whether they supported our presence there. — Lynsey Addario

People think photography is about photographing. To me, it's about relationships. — Lynsey Addario

But I have faith, as I've always had, that if I work hard enough, care enough, and love enough in all areas of my life, I can create and enjoy a full life. — Lynsey Addario

I was kidnapped by Sunni insurgents near Fallujah, in Iraq, ambushed by the Taliban in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, and injured in a car accident that killed my driver while covering the Taliban occupation of the Swat Valley in Pakistan. — Lynsey Addario

I come from a big family of hairdressers; they didn't read newspapers. I would say, 'I'm off to Afghanistan ... ' and they would say, 'Have fun!' — Lynsey Addario

I knew that my interest lied in international stories. I was interested in how women were living under the Taliban, for example. — Lynsey Addario

By the time the United States went to war with Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, I had made three trips to the country. I covered the fall of the Taliban in Kandahar and have been returning routinely for the past 14 years. — Lynsey Addario

The goal for me is to pull in the reader and to have them ask questions. — Lynsey Addario

I think it's important to have perspective and to look at what you don't necessarily want to see. — Lynsey Addario

When I'm documenting, for example, a story on women in Afghanistan, I will do a huge amount of research and a lot of time on the ground just getting to know the women before I even start shooting. — Lynsey Addario

Obviously I am a photographer and I believe in my medium: I do think that powerful photographs can force change. It doesn't take long to look and be engaged in a strong image whereas, with a story, you have to actually sit down and pause and be involved in it. — Lynsey Addario

I've worked for over 11 years in the Muslim world, and the one thing that I feel like I've learned - who's to say if it's true or not true, it's just my experience - is that men don't like to see really strong, aggressive women in that area of the world. — Lynsey Addario

Nothing seemed more important to me than to make the world aware of the senseless death and starvation in South Sudan. I wanted people to see through the eyes of the suffering so my photos might motivate the international community to act. — Lynsey Addario

You have to believe 100 percent in what you're doing, that some picture or some thing we do is going to change the world in some tiny, minute way. — Lynsey Addario

Look, I would say that anyone who does this work and doesn't have a strain of idealism is an adrenaline junkie or completely narcissistic. There is no other justification. You're risking your life, and if anything happens, it's our families who suffer tremendously. — Lynsey Addario

My strength is looking for composition and light, and I think those things come in the quieter times of war or photographing people affected on the margins of war - civilians, refugees; that is where I really excel. — Lynsey Addario

In so many countries, Western journalists are viewed simply as dollar signs. We're ransom objects. — Lynsey Addario

I was lucky because I had parents who have enabled me to do whatever I was passionate about and never held my siblings and me back from anything. But I think a lot of people don't have that experience. — Lynsey Addario

I found that the camera was a comforting companion. It opened up new worlds, and gave me access to people's most intimate moments. I discovered the privilege of seeing life in all its complexity, the thrill of learning something new every day. When I was behind a camera, it was the only place in the world I wanted to be. — Lynsey Addario

I had first visited Kurdistan in 2003 before the invasion of Iraq, camping out in Erbil and Sulaimaniya while waiting for Saddam Hussein's fall. — Lynsey Addario

I've seen so many photographers rush to do books the minute they start shooting, but one great thing about photography is that the images don't go away, so the more I sit with these images, the more I learn which ones have had the most impact. — Lynsey Addario

Photography has shaped the way I look at the world; it has taught me to look beyond myself and capture the world outside. — Lynsey Addario

I remember the moment in which we were taken hostage in Libya, and we were asked to lie face down on the ground, and they started putting our arms behind our backs and started tying us up. And we were each begging for our lives because they were deciding whether to execute us, and they had guns to our heads. — Lynsey Addario

I wanted to continue doing my work, but I had to figure out how. And so what I have basically come up with is that I still go to Afghanistan and Iraq and South Sudan and many of these places that are rife with war, but I don't go directly to the front line. — Lynsey Addario

I never wanted to regret the kisses I missed. — Lynsey Addario

I didn't want my gender to determine whether or not I could cover breaking news. — Lynsey Addario

The more I photographed Muslim women, the more I was able to metaphorically strip away the burqas and hijabs, and start chipping away at the profound misconceptions that existed in other parts of the world about these women and their culture. — Lynsey Addario

The fact is that trauma and risk taking hadn't become scarier over the years; it had become more normal. — Lynsey Addario

The Americans set up impromptu checkpoints along the roads and erected stop signs in English - a language and script that not all Iraqis understood. Cars that failed to stop before the checkpoint were fired upon. I witnessed two entire families killed at the same checkpoint within twenty minutes of each other. — Lynsey Addario

The Taliban rose to power in 1996, vowing stability and an end to the violence raging across the country between warring mujahedeen factions, and to implement rule by Sharia law, or strict Islamic rule. — Lynsey Addario

In a place like Afghanistan where the society is completely segregated, women have access to women. Men cannot always photograph women and cannot get the access that I get. — Lynsey Addario

The possibility to mobilize the international community to act on human suffering is what drives me every day as a photojournalist. — Lynsey Addario

As a war correspondent and a mother, I've learned to live in two different realities ... but it's my choice. I choose to live in peace and witness war - to experience the worst in people but to remember the beauty. — Lynsey Addario

We had learned from the killing of a Reuters photographer on the balcony of the Palestine Hotel that a long lens could be mistaken for a rocket-propelled grenade. — Lynsey Addario

Journalists dedicate their lives to covering war - they make many personal sacrifices, and it's not something that's gender-based. In a place like Libya where there's heavy fighting, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. — Lynsey Addario

More than anything, he taught me the art of patience. Cameras introduce tension. People are aware of the power of a camera, and this instinctively makes most subjects uncomfortable and stiff. But Bebeto taught me to linger in a place long enough, without photographing, so that people grew comfortable with me and the camera's presence. — Lynsey Addario

I would never think of myself as a role model. — Lynsey Addario

A lot of women act like it's the easiest decision, and I'm just going to have a baby and put my life on hold and not be worried about it. Well, I was worried. — Lynsey Addario

As a photographer who is constantly in violent, bloody situations where the instinct is to turn away, I am always trying to figure out how to make people not turn away. — Lynsey Addario

My life isn't always at risk, even if I'm in a war zone. A lot of these places have areas of calm, so covering war doesn't necessarily mean being shot at all the time. — Lynsey Addario

I started freelancing for the Associated Press. I had a great mentor there who sort of taught me everything. — Lynsey Addario

Americans are really lovely people - friendly, kind and willing to help you out. — Lynsey Addario

I'm not very religious at all - I was raised Catholic, but probably haven't gone to church since my Holy Communion when I was about 6 or 7. — Lynsey Addario

I became fascinated by the notion of dispelling stereotypes or misconceptions through photography, of presenting the counterintuitive. — Lynsey Addario

Becoming a mother hasn't necessarily changed how I shoot, but it certainly has made me more sensitive, and it certainly makes it much harder for me to photograph dying children. — Lynsey Addario

I think, for me, personally, I try to be sensitive to issues as I learn about them. And I also try to constantly become not only a certain type of person but also become more in tune to the issues I'm covering. As I get older, I think that things just affect me more. — Lynsey Addario

With each assignment, I weigh the looming possibility of being killed, and I chastise myself for allowing fear to hinder me. War photographers aren't supposed to get scared. — Lynsey Addario

It's very hard to turn your back once you're aware of what's going on, and you're aware of the injustices, and you're aware of the civilian casualties. It's much easier if you have no idea and you've never seen it. — Lynsey Addario

It seems like, yeah, of course - I always think my work is important, or I wouldn't risk my life for it. — Lynsey Addario

I always knew my death would be a possible consequence of the work I do. But for me it was a price I was willing to pay because this is what I believed in. — Lynsey Addario

I think there were times when I first started out, when I was covering Iraq - I was basically living there in 2003 and 2004 - that car bombs and attacks became so the norm that it was weird for me to leave and realize that no one else actually cared about what was going on there. — Lynsey Addario

Where in the world would I rather be than on the front line of history? — Lynsey Addario

As a Western woman in the Middle East, I am often put in a different category. I am sort of like the third sex. I am not treated like a man. I am not treated like a woman. I am just treated like a journalist. That is usually really helpful. — Lynsey Addario

With my subjects - the thousands of people I have photographed - I have shared the joy of survival, the courage to resist oppression, the anguish of loss, the resilience of the oppressed, the brutality of the worst of men and the tenderness of the best. — Lynsey Addario

I was assigned a Taliban "minder" who followed me everywhere. But he couldn't follow me into homes where there were women, so I took photos inside people's homes. — Lynsey Addario

For me, it's more about being there, bearing witness to history, bearing witness to what's happening, what our country, the position our country is taking overseas. I want policy-makers to see the fruits of their decisions, basically, and to try and influence foreign policy. — Lynsey Addario

If I'm doing a story on how a single mother copes in a refugee camp, I'll go to her tent; I'll follow her when she's working, see what her daily life is like, and try to pack that into one composition, with nice light, in one frame. — Lynsey Addario

When I first started out, I really felt like, 'I'm a journalist; I will be respected as a neutral observer.' And I don't feel like that holds true anymore. I don't think people respect journalists the same way they once did. — Lynsey Addario

Before I gave birth to Lukas, I hadn't truly understood that painful, consuming, I-will-do-anything-to-save-this-human-being kind of love. — Lynsey Addario

You have two options when you approach a hostile checkpoint in a war zone, and each is a gamble. The first is to stop and identify yourself as a journalist and hope that you are respected as a neutral observer. The second is to blow past the checkpoint and hope the soldiers guarding it don't open fire on you. — Lynsey Addario

Let's get one thing straight: I am not an adrenaline junkie. Just because you cover conflict doesn't mean you thrive on adrenaline. It means you have a purpose, and you feel it is very important for people back home to see what is happening on the front line, especially if we are sending American soldiers there. — Lynsey Addario

I wanted the ideal personal life, but I also wanted to keep rushing off, and that doesn't work, not unless you've got an incredibly understanding partner. — Lynsey Addario

If women are all of a sudden complaining all the time about getting sent to Pakistan, then if I were an editor, I probably wouldn't send a woman. — Lynsey Addario

For me personally, I'm constantly trying to really re-negotiate how I'm going to make a living because I can't make a living solely off editorial. And I'm also still trying to tell long feature stories that are harder and harder to get assigned, you know. — Lynsey Addario

I'm a very open person, very self-deprecating. I accept my flaws. — Lynsey Addario

For a journalist who covers the Muslim world, we have responsibilities to be familiar with that culture and to know how to respond to that. — Lynsey Addario

There are ways to minimize the risk if you are a woman working in the Middle East: You can dress modestly, wear the hijab, cover your head, always travel with a man. — Lynsey Addario

I hope that my work helps people - that's the thing that drives me and keeps me going. — Lynsey Addario

The first time I visited Afghanistan in May 2000, I was 26 years old, and the country was under Taliban rule. I went there to document Afghan women and landmine victims. — Lynsey Addario

I try not to get caught up in how our society is so inundated with images, and stay very focused on the work that I'm doing. — Lynsey Addario