Lynsey Addario's New Book

[Please note that TOP is offline Saturdays. We'll return Sunday afternoon. —Ed.]

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Remember Lynsey Addario? She's appeared twice here on TOP, once when she won the MacArthur "Genius" Grant in 2009, and once when Audi chose to profile her for a car advertisement and we posted it.

She's just sent me a copy of It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War, her memoir published by Penguin Press.

Photo: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Photojournalist—and now author—Lynsey Addario

Strangely perhaps—write it off to chaos theory—I didn't write about it when she was kidnapped in 2011. Maybe that's good, though, because it means you can read her own account of it, as you should.

It violates the Pinker Rule to recommend a book before I've read it all the way through, but this one is turning out to be a particularly compelling example of its genre. I tried to contact Lynsey for permission to publish a short excerpt; she's doubtless off doing much more serious things than answering emails. In the breach, try this, maybe tomorrow when TOP takes the day off:

1. Go to the Amazon page.
2. Click on the book cover to "Look Inside."
3. Scroll down and click on "Prelude."
4. Scroll down and start reading past the three-dot break where it begins "I was there on assignment for the New York Times with three other award-winning journalists...."

Blurb-words are impossible to use, because of runaway blurb-word inflation and excessive blurb-word overexposure, but see if you don't think what follows gets more and more "gripping."

It's illegal to steal large sections of published text without permission (people who repost whole articles on forums take note), but Fair Use allows you to publish reasonable small selections for the purpose of discussion. I think I'll venture this, from page 123 of the hardcover:

"Is anyone here a journalist?" the driver repeated. " I have the body of a journalist in the trunk of my car and don't know what to do with it."

I definitely couldn't handle that. I walked back over to Eric and Elizabeth. Eric rattled off a phone number, and Elizabeth dialed and handed the phone back to him. It was a number for the wife of his dead colleague, and the answering machine picked up. He hung up. Eric uttered another number, and someone picked up. It was his office in Australia.

"Hi. This is Eric. Paul is dead."

Just like that.

I ran around to the back of the hospital and put my face in my hands. That phone call could have been for me, for Ivan, for Elizabeth. I didn't even have any phone numbers for Elizabeth's family. We were all there minutes before the car bomb detonated. Now there was some random taxi driver with the body of a colleague folded and dismembered in his trunk, asking what to do with it. How did one transfer the body of a friend out of a country we all snuck into illegally, when there were no functioning embassies, no police, no diplomats, and the only open border accessible from northern Iraq was with Iran? It seemed so obvious, but I didn't know war meant death—that journalists might also get killed in the war. I hid behind the hospital, ashamed of my weakness, my tears, and my fear, wondering if I had the strength for this job, and wept inconsolably.

The war had begun.

Frightening and sobering, as life. As writing, cracking good stuff. I suspect you'll find that the book's value as information about photojournalism begins to take a back seat, and what you're reading is actually top-drawer, page-turning true life adventure writing.

I do 95% of my reading on the iPad Air and Kindle now, and I have It's What I Do for the Kindle app and also in hardcover. In this case I'm going to recommend the hardcover. It's a compact, solid, well-made book printed on good paper, and the numerous color illustrations integrated into the flow of the printed matter are particularly well done.

I guess I have to finish this before I can say "highly recommended." So stay tuned for that.

Mike

P.S. She was profiled on NPR just the other day, but I can't go 44 minutes without music. And here's the book link for the U.K.

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Bryce Lee: "Wanted the hardcover copy of the book through Amazon Canada. One to three month wait before being allowed into Canada. And the price could also (after checking with my local retail outlet who are not bringing in the book) be twice or more the listed U.S. price. And I don't do tablets or readers."

Mike replies: Easy. Just go here. Free shipping worldwide, and in stock.

Comments

[Chuck Albertson]

She's in town for the book tour this evening, conveniently next door to my work-cave. If I get a chance, I'll ask her if it's OK for you to publish a short excerpt.

[Dustin]

NRP's Fresh Air did a story on her a few days ago that might be worth the listen: http://www.npr.org/2015/02/11/385246118/twice-kidnapped-photographer-returns-to-war-zone-its-what-i-do

[Joe Holmes]

Also, if you've got iBooks or any other iPad book-reading app, it's a snap to find Addario's book in the store and click "Sample" to read the entire Prelude and a good bit of the first chapter. This is a handy way to check out a book even if you intend to buy a paper copy.

[Ed Hawco]

She was interviewed on CBC Radio's "Q" last week:
http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2015/02/10/lynsey-addario-conflict-reporting-pregnant/

Click the "Listen" button to pop up a player. (The recording is 17 minutes.)

[Kenneth Tanaka]

This woman has clearly hired some very energetic public relations help to torque-up her profile. I'm suddenly seeing her name everywhere, mainly in relation to this book. It wouldn't surprise me to see her on a GoDaddy ad next.

I know nothing of her, as I do not follow conflict snappers a whit. But I sure admire someone that can turn up this much heat, even down to the enthusiast blog level, in a largely positive light! Wow.

p.s. Hey, Mike, how 'bout that 'bokeh' on the MacArthur portrait, eh?

[Rod S.]

Well, that made my eyes tear up.

Just two days ago I caught a 10 minute interview of Lynsey on the television in my hotel room. She was humble, honest and thoughtful about her work and achievements. I was very impressed.

We all see less photojournalism than we used to and I had to wonder whether her photographs gain the public attention that they so deserve.

Thanks, Mike, for bringing this book to our attention.

[Tony Roberts]

Mike: The Fresh Air podcast is downloadable from the NPR website. http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=385246118&m=385519592&live=1
Adarrio is very open about her captors, esp. the mistreatment she endured and how she coped with the thugish creeps. Calling them out on the Islamic principles about sisters and mothers probably saved her life. In a similar vein, the late Bob Simon's book, Forty Days, (http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Days-Bob-Simon/dp/0399137602/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423859513&sr=8-1&keywords=bob+simon about his captivity is equally compelling.
Hope you don't mind these urls.

[Ben Shugart]

She also has a fabulous story in the 2/1 issue of NYT Magazine, "Maternity Test: What Can a Pregnant Photojournalist Cover? Everything". I'd imagine it reads very similar to the book, although I haven't read the book to verify.

[Rod Thompson]

Maybe when we have creative block we should throw in some bullets, bombs and other destructive destractions to just get on with it.
Truth comes most clearly from war.

[Rico Ramirez]

Have you read the similarly titled "Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War" by Deborah Copaken Kagen from 2002? http://www.amazon.com/Shutterbabe-Adventures-Deborah-Copaken-Kogan/dp/0375758682

[Steve L.]

Her work makes me want to be a better human being.

I can't think of a better compliment to give someone.

[Stephen S. Mack]

I think that Kindle is great for text, but I really prefer a book if it is a book of photos. Somehow, the pictures just aren't as good as looking at the original, physical book.

Just my two kopecks worth. ;<)

With best regards, Stephen

[HBernstein]

I wonder which of her images have been published by mainstream media in this country, and how many more intense ones have been published abroad.

I wonder if the self-censoring market in the U.S. has avoided running some of her best work.

Does she discuss it in the book?

[Doug Fisher]

She was also on Charlie Rose recently:

http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60513866

[Dave Riedel]

Not sure where to put this but very interesting explanations.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Filovehatephoto.com%2F2014%2F12%2F30%2Fa-guide-to-optical-lens-design-and-zeiss-nomenclature%2F&ei=GmnfVOuLAfGIsQSw2ICQDA&usg=AFQjCNFvV0zYTigzNPXbBpJ5E3iEE8m9oA&sig2=PUW5Qc_I6ZOzs6_FfYJvQQ

[Yves Papillon]

Just to bring your attention to the Anja Niedringhaus' book At War. Great black and white humanistic pictures from an enlightened photojournalist who was killed in Afghanistan last April.

[Jacob]

I respect Lynsey and I respect her work, but I feel that she sometimes takes unnecessary risks to capture stories that sadly very few people get to see in the correct context. Stay safe out there Lynsey. Don't let someone else's ambition to make a profit on a current event put you needlessly in the line of fire.

[Jack]

Mike,
Thanks for the link.
Better than any thriller.

[Ilkka]

Sad. Sad that one has to go to those lengths to make a living. Sad that one does. Sad that one does not care enough about husband and unborn child to do that. After Robert Capa lost his one true love in Spanish Civil war, he lived every day of his life as if it was his last, and did not care about his safety when going after the photograph. He had, in a way, given up on life. I think many war photographers are like that. No role models for the most of us. Dangerous role models for restless, young, somewhat lost youth of our time.

[JPH]

She was on the PBS Newshour tonight ... Here's also a link to some of her photos on the site too