Anton Hammerl

[megan]

Last night I went to Christie's for an auction of some truly amazing photographs to benefit the children of Anton Hammerl. Hammerl was a South African photojournalist killed last year in Libya; his remains have never been found. He leaves behind his wife and three children.

Like so many of us pro shooters, he was freelance. I need not go into the details of what that means, we read it here and all over the internet. I wanted to contribute somehow, but I'm also freelance, and gigs are hard-won these days; I can't really spare all that much. My work isn't known enough, or even good enough, to have been invited to be in that room with photos from David Burnett, Gilles Peress, Sebastiao Salgado, Robert Capa, Susan Meiselas, Tim Hetherington, Bruce Davidson, and on and on and on. But I did take this cursory shot of Christiane Amanpour's opening words, so I thought - I can put this shot up to get the word out. What better place than on a website full of people who love photography?

If you feel so compelled, please visit friendsofanton.org. Just because you missed the auction doesn't mean you can't help.

Thanks for looking and reading.