Tim Hetherington

April 2011

I am saddened to hear of the death of Tim Hetherington, in Libya.

In January 2006 when I was in Freetown making a radio documentary, Tim was assigned to cover my return home by The Guardian. We met as strangers at Bintumani, our beachside hotel, and later, on that first evening, when I turned to introduce him to my Freetown family, we laughed out loud because he knew them already. I was the Freetown foreigner, not him.

We spent a few days together, travelling, photographing, taking in the unsettling effects of post-war peacetime. It was a pleasure and an education to be in his company: Tim’s knowledge of West Africa from living in Liberia over many years and his understanding of Sierra Leone and its people guided our documentary as much as it trained his lens.

He had seen war. He helped me to edge closer to it. He had already photographed bombed out schools and hospitals and he captured my horror and pain at Freetown’s impoverished state with sensitivity and wisdom, enabling us all to discuss the country’s future: what might be the impact of Liberia’s quickening progress with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the presidential seat, what of the war crimes tribunals and the return of Guinea refugees.

We had so much fun, we talked late into the night staring out to the Atlantic, we faced the coldness of the courtroom together and sat in silence with the ex-child combatants.

It was a joyous time, an emotional time: laughter and shouting erupted at the school for the blind when Tim, their friend and fundraiser, turned up at suppertime. He sat and ate with them teasing and hugging his student friends. His photographic calendar of their school, used to promote their trip to Europe and to raise funds, was brought out. The images were beautiful. Against the distinct earthy tones of Sierra Leonean school cups, a crate of oranges, girls at play, a quiet dormitory.

Elsewhere too, Tim’s enthusiasm and quiet generosity in supporting and celebrating the lives of ordinary people resulted in photographic projects and books. The subtle hues of pink and shaded brown, red houses and emerald green shuttered interiors were caught in Tim’s tribute to Creole Architecture in Sierra Leone: Den Ol Bod Ose.

Tim, what a finely spirited soul! Your time was so well spent. In Freetown alone, these lovingly tendered creative projects and more and more, so many friends, so many smiles and more and more…

Delia Jarrett-Macauley