It's What I Do

"A brutally real and unrelentingly raw memoir."--Kirkus (starred review)

War photographer Lynsey Addario’s memoir It’s What I Do is the story of how the relentless pursuit of truth, in virtually every major theater of war in the twenty-first century, has shaped her life. What she does, with clarity, beauty, and candor, is to document, often in their most extreme moments, the complex lives of others. It’s her work, but it’s much more than that: it’s her singular calling.

Lynsey Addario was just finding her way as a young photographer when September 11 changed the world. One of the few photojournalists with experience in Afghanistan, she gets the call to return and cover the American invasion. She makes a decision she would often find herself making—not to stay home, not to lead a quiet or predictable life, but to set out across the world, face the chaos of crisis, and make a name for herself.

Addario finds a way to travel with a purpose. She photographs the Afghan people before and after the Taliban reign, the civilian casualties and misunderstood insurgents of the Iraq War, as well as the burned villages and countless dead in Darfur. She exposes a culture of violence against women in the Congo and tells the riveting story of her headline-making kidnapping by pro-Qaddafi forces in the Libyan civil war.

Addario takes bravery for granted but she is not fearless. She uses her fear and it creates empathy; it is that feeling, that empathy, that is essential to her work. We see this clearly on display as she interviews rape victims in the Congo, or photographs a fallen soldier with whom she had been embedded in Iraq, or documents the tragic lives of starving Somali children. Lynsey takes us there and we begin to understand how getting to the hard truth trumps fear.

As a woman photojournalist determined to be taken as seriously as her male peers, Addario fights her way into a boys’ club of a profession. Rather than choose between her personal life and her career, Addario learns to strike a necessary balance. In the man who will become her husband, she finds at last a real love to complement her work, not take away from it, and as a new mother, she gains an all the more intensely personal understanding of the fragility of life.

Watching uprisings unfold and people fight to the death for their freedom, Addario understands she is documenting not only news but also the fate of society. It’s What I Do is more than just a snapshot of life on the front lines; it is witness to the human cost of war.

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2015: “Why do you do this?” is the central question Lynsey Addario answers in her new memoir It’s What I Do—and she asks it not just for the reader, but it seems for herself. Addario is a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient and was part of the team that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (covering the Taliban in Afghanistan with Dexter Filkins ) but her story often underscores her insecurities in her profession and personal life. Even with her numerous accolades, she worries about being forgotten, missing the breaking story and not being taken seriously as a woman. It’s a frank, and refreshingly, candid look into a successful professional photojournalist at the top of her game but it never romanticizes the risks that are necessary to bring us her images. Her story is inspiring, heartbreaking and an eye opening look at what it takes to reveal events from the other side of the world. –Amy Huff

Review

Kirkus (starred review):

“A remarkable journalistic achievement from a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winner that crystalizes the last 10 years of global war and strife while candidly portraying the intimate life of a female photojournalist. Told with unflinching candor, the award-winning photographer brings an incredible sense of humanity to all the battlefields of her life. Especially affecting is the way in which Addario conveys the role of gender and how being a woman has impacted every aspect of her personal and professional lives. Whether dealing with ultrareligious zealots or overly demanding editors, being a woman with a camera has never been an easy task. A brutally real and unrelentingly raw memoir that is as inspiring as it is horrific.”

Publishers Weekly:

“A highly readable and thoroughly engaging memoir…. Addario’s memoir brilliantly succeeds not only as a personal and professional narrative but also as an illuminating homage to photojournalism’s role in documenting suffering and injustice, and its potential to influence public opinion and official policy.”

Booklist:

“Addario has written a page-turner of a memoir describing her war coverage and why and how she fell into—and stayed in—such a dangerous job. This ‘extraordinary profession’—though exhilarating and frightening, it ‘fe

Lynsey Addario (born 1973) is an American photojournalist. Her work often focuses on conflicts and human rights issues, especially the role of women in traditional societies. She graduated from Staples High School, in Westport, Connecticut, in 1991. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1995. She began photographing professionally in 1996 at at the Buenos Aires Herald in Argentina, and then began freelancing for the Associated Press, with Cuba as a focus. In 2000, she photographed in Afghanistan under Taliban control. She has since covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, the Congo, and Haiti. She has covered stories throughout the Middle East and Africa. She has visited Darfur or neighboring Chad at least once a month from August 2004. She has photographed for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic. In Pakistan on May 9, 2009, Addario was involved in an automobile accident while returning to Islamabad from an assignment at a refugee camp. Her collar bone (clavicle) was broken, another journalist was injured, and the driver was killed. Addario was one of four New York Times journalists who were missing in Libya from March 16–21, 2011. The New York Times reported on March 18, 2011 that Libya had agreed to free her and three colleagues: Anthony Shadid, Stephen Farrell and Tyler Hicks. The Libyan government released the four journalists on March 21, 2011. She reports that she was threatened with death and repeatedly groped during her captivity by the Libyan Army. Addario told the press that "Physically we were blindfolded and bound. In the beginning, my hands and feet were bound very tightly behind our backs and my feet were tied with shoelaces. I was blindfolded most of the first three days, with the exception of the first six hours. I was punched in the face a few times and groped repeatedly." And "It was incredibly intense and violent. It was abusive throughout, both psychologically and physically. It was very chaotic and very aggressive. For me, there was a lot of groping right away. Sort of everyone who had to pick me up and carry me somewhere, they would reach around and grab my breasts and touch my butt--everyone who came near me. In November 2011, The New York Times wrote a letter of complaint on behalf of Addario to the Israeli government, after allegations that Israeli soldiers at the Erez Crossing had strip-searched and mocked her and forced her to go through an X-ray scanner three times despite knowing that she was pregnant. Addario reported that she had "never, ever been treated with such blatant cruelty." The Israeli Defence ministry subsequently issued an apology to both Addario and The New York Times. The extensive exhibition In Afghanistan at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway has her photos of Afghan women juxtaposed with Tim Hetherington's photographs from American soldiers in the Korengal Valley. Addario is married to Paul de Bendern, a journalist with Reuters. They married in July 2009. They have one son, Lukas (B. 2011). She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship in 2009. Her work in Waziristan, Sept. 7, 2008, was part of work receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for International Reporting. She won the Getty Images Grant for Editorial photography in 2008 for her work in Darfur. She received the Infinity Award in 2002 by the International Center of Photography.