Lynsey Addario

I think Lynsey Addario is a fantastic photojournalist, and I admire not just her talent, but all that she put in to become what she is. She was looked down upon at first for being inexperienced and for being a woman. This would be reason for a lot of people to back down or settle for something else, but she didn't, and it got her to where she always dreamed she would get.

The lessons I can learn from Lynsey Addario are that dedication, refusal to give up, and confidence will pay off. Once you face an uncomfortable situation and choose to work through it, it makes you better and more equipped to take on the future.

Lynsey made some crazy sacrifices for her career that I don't think I could make. She left her family and only sees them once or twice a year, and every time she seems to have a chance at love, her career takes priority because not only is she trying to make a name for herself, but she is drawn to the experience.

My favorite Lynsey Addario quote comes from the beginning of her photojournalism career, after she visits a Sebastiao Salgado gallery: "I knew then that I wanted to tell people's stories through photos; to do justice to their humanity, as Salgado had done; to provoke the kind of empathy for the subjects that I was feeling in that moment" (Pg 29).

The photo above is one of my favorite ones that Lynsey Addario has captured. It just provokes so much emotion for me, and I think its a fantastic example of the goal stated in my favorite quote: she is truly portraying her subjects' humanity.