You very rarely see what cameramen, be they video or still, look like in the field. I often wonder what is going on behind the scenes when I look at scary, intensely vivid wartime photographs. Do the photographers stick out? Are people paying attention to them? How close are they to the action? Is it terrifying? This photo, by Reuters photographer Paul Conroy, gives you a pretty good idea. It shows New York Times photographers Tyler Hicks (on the right, in the glasses) and Lynsey Addario (almost off-camera, on left) among other journalists in Ras Lanuf, Libya, as they run for cover last Friday from bombs dropped by government planes. Hicks and Addario are two of the four Times journalists that have been missing since Tuesday. The photo answers some of my questions: Yes, they are incredibly close to the action. Yes, they stick out. And yes, it looks scary as hell.
