By Caroline ’13 and Tahirah ’12
On the morning of Thursday, Mar. 15, award-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario visited Marlborough and presented her audio slide show, “Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone,” along with some of her other work from Darfur, Afghanistan and Libya to Visual Arts classes and the staffs of the UltraViolet and the Sundial in Seaver Gallery.
Addario has received several awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. She is currently based in London and regularly takes photographs for the New York Times, National Geographic and Time Magazine.
In addition to “Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone,” which told the story of a woman who dies in childbirth due to poor health-care conditions, Addario presented “Veiled Rebellion,” a series of photographs documenting the lives of women in Afghanistan, a country she first visited in 2000 and has regularly returned to over the past decade. Another series, “Talibanistan,” documents Addario’s experience with the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan. In order to enter the Taliban’s territory as a woman and take these photographs, Addario said she had to cover herself from head to toe and pretend to be the wife of a male journalist.
Another series, “Unrest in Libya,” documented the early days of the revolution in Libya in 2011. Shortly after taking these photographs, Addario was kidnapped by Muammar Qaddafi’s forces along with three other New York Times journalists. Recounting the gripping tale of her capture, Addario described how a gun was put to her head as men debated whether or not to kill her.
“Everyone I talked to said how powerful and moving [Addario] was,” Visual Arts Department Head Gina Woodruff said. “No matter what any of the visitors came for, no one understood how broad the scope of her work was.”
Photography student Bailey ’13 said that she felt extremely lucky to have seen Addario’s presentation and was very impressed with what she saw.
“She’s incredibly brave for being able to go into war zones and then take photos. It was incredibly inspiring for the photographers at the School, and the artists as well, to see her.” Bailey said.
To learn more about Addario visit this site: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23times.html?pagewanted=all
