In the Book, It's What I Do, by photojournalist Lynsey Addario, Addario includes everything that has happened to her throughout her lifetime from her past childhood memories while growing up with her family, her adventures of covering war stories from the middle east, and her happiest moments that have impacted her throughout her photojournalism career. To start off, Addario is an American Photojournalist who works for the New York Times, who also covers many conflicts that happen around Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and plenty other war zones in the middle east. Addario has faced plenty of rough times during her life, starting from her parent's divorce, her breakups with her ex-boyfriends, being captured by terrorist, being damaged from a car crash, and hearing about all the people she has known being reported dead. But throughout Addario's hardships, Addario keeps on doing her best to live her life, as well as getting photos for her photojournalism career at New York Times.
After reading through Addario's book, the most compelling part that I found the most interesting was how Addario managed her life after the car crash she was involved in, where she had to have metal implants placed into her arms. When Addario's surgery was done she was Married to her husband, Paul, whom she had met after one of her adventures before the car crash. Later on in the book, she is once again held hostage in Libya, along with a few of her colleagues, Addario and her colleagues have suffered through a lot of torture in this part of the chapter, but later on, Addario and her colleagues were taken to the Libyan Embassy, where they had stayed within the three weeks of the Libyan uprising. Afterwards, Addario hears about two of her colleagues who she worked with, were killed in Libya, which is an emotional time for Addario after she and the colleagues who were with her had escaped and survived from being held captive from Libyans. Soon after, Addario had finally gotten pregnant, which she knew was a huge risk for her career as a photojournalist, but it was something that she wanted for both her and Paul to have a happy relationship for their family. Addario then gave birth to her son, Lukas, which made Addario's life feel more complete. Even though Addario kept working her Photojournalism Career, she had always worried that she would miss her son during her travels, but as long as she knew Paul was still looking after their son, she kept on working her career as long as It was what made Lukas, Paul, and the rest of her family happy for her.
In the book, Addario adds in all of the photos she taken during the wars she covered, as well as memorable moments like her family, and her marriage. A good portion of Addario's photos have been balanced between close-ups, medium shots, and environmental shots, but the main things that make Addario's photos stand out is how emotion takes place in each photo, like when sadness is felt whenever a photo involves death, or civilians living a poor lifestyle. One other kind of emotion that is felt from looking through Addario's photos is Happiness, especially when photos show good time with family and friends. One of Addario's strategies from taking photos is well explained In Chapter 7, page 146 of It's What I do, when Addario says, "Over the years I forced myself to be creative in how I covered the same scenes over and over. I started shooting refugee camps out of focus, sometimes in abstract ways, to try to reach an audience beyond the typical New York Times readership--an audience geared more toward the visual arts."
As someone who is trying to work on his camera and photography skills, I would never understand how someone like Addario would cover wars for her photojournalism career. I know that I would never want to travel to places to shoot photos during a war, mainly because I couldn't handle all of the emotion of people fighting in a war, as well as the many lives that fall during battle, and I wouldn't want to ever become one of the people who die during a war that is taking place somewhere I would never want to go in the first place, especially when I have a family that cares about my well-being, and I would never want to put that kind of burden on my family. Where Addario has covered plenty of wars, and managed to survive all of the wars, as well as all the captivities she was involved in, mainly because she had soldiers who were around to protect her, and she had learned how to speak many languages that are spoken around the middle east.
One lesson that I learned from Addario's book comes from Chapter 6, page 134 of It's What I do, when Addario quotes, "I wanted to make people think, to open their minds, to give them a full picture of what was happening in Iraq so they could decide whether they supported our presence there." This helps me understand that there are some people who want to know what is going on in the photos, and why people who are getting their photos taken in one place would feel comfortable or not whenever a photographer takes a photo of the people who are involved in the photo.
The photo that I found to be the most interesting is The death of a U.S. Marine in southern Afghanistan, 2010.
In this Photo found between Pages 210 and 211 of chapter 10 in It's What I Do, Addario captures a sad moment where a Marine Squadron gathers near one of their soldiers who fell in battle, where the soldier was covered up with an American Flag, and everyone in the room has their heads bowed down in silence to honor a soldier who fought and died for his country. This Photo gives off a lot of sad emotion, mainly because it's hard to see a group of people feel sorrow in the photo, and whenever there is death involved in a photo, the photo makes the viewer feel sorry for their family, and everyone else who knew the person.
A quote that I felt was most revealing about Addario is on page 269, of chapter 14, where she explains what her life is like between living life with her family, and taking photos during wars, "It's not always easy to make the transition from a beautiful London park filled with children to a war zone, 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."
I wouldn't really recommend this book for people who want to pursue a photojournalism career, mainly because the author only tells what has happened throughout her life, and only a few techniques that the author uses from her shots, but there really isn't a lot of advice that the author gives to the readers when reading through the whole book. But, If a person only just wants to read the book only to hear about the war stories, then this book would be perfect for that kind of reader.
In the book, Addario adds in all of the photos she taken during the wars she covered, as well as memorable moments like her family, and her marriage. A good portion of Addario's photos have been balanced between close-ups, medium shots, and environmental shots, but the main things that make Addario's photos stand out is how emotion takes place in each photo, like when sadness is felt whenever a photo involves death, or civilians living a poor lifestyle. One other kind of emotion that is felt from looking through Addario's photos is Happiness, especially when photos show good time with family and friends. One of Addario's strategies from taking photos is well explained In Chapter 7, page 146 of It's What I do, when Addario says, "Over the years I forced myself to be creative in how I covered the same scenes over and over. I started shooting refugee camps out of focus, sometimes in abstract ways, to try to reach an audience beyond the typical New York Times readership--an audience geared more toward the visual arts."
As someone who is trying to work on his camera and photography skills, I would never understand how someone like Addario would cover wars for her photojournalism career. I know that I would never want to travel to places to shoot photos during a war, mainly because I couldn't handle all of the emotion of people fighting in a war, as well as the many lives that fall during battle, and I wouldn't want to ever become one of the people who die during a war that is taking place somewhere I would never want to go in the first place, especially when I have a family that cares about my well-being, and I would never want to put that kind of burden on my family. Where Addario has covered plenty of wars, and managed to survive all of the wars, as well as all the captivities she was involved in, mainly because she had soldiers who were around to protect her, and she had learned how to speak many languages that are spoken around the middle east.
One lesson that I learned from Addario's book comes from Chapter 6, page 134 of It's What I do, when Addario quotes, "I wanted to make people think, to open their minds, to give them a full picture of what was happening in Iraq so they could decide whether they supported our presence there." This helps me understand that there are some people who want to know what is going on in the photos, and why people who are getting their photos taken in one place would feel comfortable or not whenever a photographer takes a photo of the people who are involved in the photo.
The photo that I found to be the most interesting is The death of a U.S. Marine in southern Afghanistan, 2010.
A quote that I felt was most revealing about Addario is on page 269, of chapter 14, where she explains what her life is like between living life with her family, and taking photos during wars, "It's not always easy to make the transition from a beautiful London park filled with children to a war zone, 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."
I wouldn't really recommend this book for people who want to pursue a photojournalism career, mainly because the author only tells what has happened throughout her life, and only a few techniques that the author uses from her shots, but there really isn't a lot of advice that the author gives to the readers when reading through the whole book. But, If a person only just wants to read the book only to hear about the war stories, then this book would be perfect for that kind of reader.
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