News: Memorial for New York City Photojournalist
(Long Island, N.Y.) A memorial was held today at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn for the forty-one-year-old photojournalist Chris Hondros who was killed in Libya. Hondros lost his life while covering the Libyan uprising in Misrata. His memorial was also streamed live for viewers logging onto the Internet.
Hondros was killed on April 20th when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the house that he was staying in. Photos he captured of the war scene just days before his death have been published on various websites. Hundreds of people gathered for today’s service, which was held on Summit Street in Brooklyn.
Hondros was born in New York City but lived in North Carolina as a child. He received a degree in English Literature from North Carolina State and worked for the campus newspaper. He also went on to receive a Master’s degree from Ohio’s School of Visual Communications. He came to New York City to pursue a career in international reporting. He was known for working in the some of the world’s most dangerous combat zones and cities during the most turbulent times known to the public in the last twenty years.
Hondros was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and was distinguished for work he had done in Liberia in 2004. He was killed along with a British photographer and documentary filmmaker. The pair was the first known Western journalists to be killed in Libya.
In addition to Libya and Liberia, Hondros captured a limitless collection of images from Kosovo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kashmir, the West Bank, and Iraq over the last two decades. He stayed in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt during the protests that occurred earlier this year. In addition to photojournalism, Hondros spent time as a lecturer and essayist on the subject of war for an array of media outlets.
Hondros’s photos have made the covers of Newsweek, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. In 2006 he received the highest honor for war photography and was distinguished for his work in Iraq. He was named “the hero of photography” the following year by a magazine.
Family members of Hondros helped established a fund in his honor known as “The Chris Hondros Fund.” The foundation provides scholarships for aspiring photojournalists and works to increase awareness in issues speaking to the conflict in photography. They have requested donations to the fund in the place of flowers.
Hondros also covered domestic issues and was known for shooting images of Ground Zero after the September 11th attacks and images of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in the American gulf. Last year, he took photos of the earthquake in Haiti and also provided images for documentary films.
Two others were wounded in the fatal attack on April 20th and reports have stated that Hondros suffered from severe brain trauma. Other reports stated that the group of foreign journalists had been traveling with rebel fighters. Among his many achievements, Hondros was known for his coverage of a 2005 shooting in Iraq that took the life of a child and two adults.
