It’s What I Do

Lynsey Addario was just finding her way as a photographer when September 11th 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 risk her life, to set out across the world, and to make a name for herself as one of a new generation of journalists created by the War on Terror. It’s What I Do follows a course unavoidable for Addario - from her first camera and the pictures it inspired, to early years as a street photographer and the inspiration she found in the work of Sebastião Salgado. Photography becomes a way for her to travel with a purpose - a singular ambition that shapes and drives her. From Afghanistan to Iraq to Darfur to Libya, Addario finds in photography not only the artistic medium to convey people’s stories, but the power to change political policy by showing its consequences. As a woman photojournalist determined to be taken seriously, Addario fights her way into a boy’s club of a profession, eventually earning widespread recognition. Refusing to turn down career-defining assignments, she puts romance and family on hold. Yet the sadness and injustice she encounters as a conflict reporter give her a new vision for her own life, and the more she sees of the world, the greater her desires for love and family grow. It’s What I Do is also the story of how Addario met her husband and father to their child, and how as a war correspondent and a mother, she learned to live her life in two different - though hardly separate - worlds. 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.