Weekend Listen: Lynsey Addario Keeps Going Back to Photograph War

Lynsey Addario’s life work means taking great risks to tell other people’s stories. She is a Pulitzer Prize winning war photographer who has been abducted twice while documenting conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine and Sudan.

There aren’t many women in her field. In a new National Geographic documentary called “Love+War,” currently streaming on Disney+, she lets us into that world, one she’s made her profession for three decades. Addario shows how she adjusts from a work environment of grave danger and high-adrenaline to being a mother making the school run and spending time with her sons.

In this conversation, she tells Mishal Husain, why she believes her job is to “bear witness” and how she came to it. She remembers the first time she used a camera and shares how her childhood prepared her to walk into any situation and connect with anyone, from soldiers to refugees and civilians living through extreme times.

This interview contains descriptions of abduction, violence and sexual assault which some listeners/viewers may find distressing.

02:27 - Love+War 03:34 - The turning point 06:00 - Learning about the risks 07:00 “I don’t want to do this for a living” 09:19 - Being held in Fallujah 11:20 - On embed in Afghanistan 14:31 - Operation Rock Avalanche 15:43 - Dealing with the emotion 16:50 - The daughter of hairdressers in Connecticut 17:44 - Getting her first camera 19:30 - Planning a “shoot-list” 21:51 - Russian strike on Ukraine 17:30 - Being held hostage in Libya 31:02 - Survivor’s guilt 33:30 Life at home 36:30 - Social media and fake images 40:18 - Switching off

Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview

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