In Memoriam: Rémi Ochlik, 1983 – 2012

3 minute read

Rémi Ochlik, an award-winning French photojournalist, was just 29 when he died on Feb. 22, when government forces shelled a building where a growing number of foreign journalists were covering the battle in Homs, Syria. Ochlik died alongside Marie Colvin, an American who was one of Britain’s most honored combat reporters. Two other journalists were reportedly wounded in the barrage.

For Ochlik the horror in Syria came as he was just beginning his career. He was with his friend Lucas Dolega, a French photographer, on the streets of Tunis during the revolution there in January 2011 when Dolega was hit and killed by a police teargas canister. “We had come to work, so I kept on working,” he said in a recent interview, after being honored for his Arab Spring photos. “As a little boy I always wanted to become an archeologist, for the travels, the adventures,” he continued. That changed when his grandfather gave him his first camera.

Oct. 23, 2011. French photojournalist Remi Ochlik in Misrata, Libya. Ochlik was killed Feb. 22, 2012, by Syrian shelling of the opposition stronghold Homs.Lucas Dolega—Polaris

In 2004, Ochlik traveled to Haiti and photographed the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, winning the Francois Chalais Award for Young Reporters. He started his own agency, IP3 press, which specialized in combat photography, he covered the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008 and he returned to Haiti for a cholera epidemic in 2010. In 2011, Ochlik covered the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; his work in Libya won him first prize in the General News category of the World Press Photo contest. One of the World Press judges said that his submission told a complete story.

“The idea was not to focus on just one part of the story,” Ochlik told the British Journal of Photography. “Because when you look at what happened, this war was divided in several parts—in Benghazi, in Misrata—and in what I’ve covered, I’ve tried to tell a story.”

Ochlik’s own story took him to Syria merely a week before he was killed. His and Colvin’s deaths came the same week that Anthony Shadid, a renowned foreign correspondent, died of an apparent asthma attack while sneaking out of the country where he had been reporting. Despite his young age, Ochlik understood the risks in his chosen profession. In describing his work in Haiti when he was only 20 years old, he said, “I could sense the danger, but it was where I always dreamt to be, in the action.” His being there allowed the world to witness horrifying atrocities, but it ended the life of a gifted storyteller when his own adventure had barely begun.

Jan. 14, 2011. Tunisian riots continued after President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in power for 23 years, dismissed his government with plans to call for new election within six months.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Jan. 17, 2011. Tunisian protesters on the streets of Tunis, chanting slogans and facing off against police forces. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Nov. 22, 2011. Egyptians frustrated by army rule battled police in Cairo streets as the military struggled to cope with a challenge to its authority, jolting plans for the country's first free election in decades. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
March 5, 2011. Men from Bangladesh, who used to work in Libya but recently fled due to unrest there, wash at a refugee camp after crossing the Tunisia-Libyan border.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
March 26, 2011. Libyan rebels gained ground at Ajdabiya after allied warplanes took out Qaddafi's military airstrike havens.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
February 2, 2011. Chaos consumes Cairo's Tahrir Square as supporters of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clash with opposition protesters. Protesters take to the streets, breaking curfew.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Sept. 25, 2011. Rebels fighters in the Abu Slim neighborhood in Tripoli fight against the last resistance of the Gaddhafi loyalist forces. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 25, 2011. Daily life in a destroyed neighborhood in Sirte, Libya.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 25, 2011. Sirte, Libya. Libya's new leaders began the tough task of forging an interim government, uniting the nation's disparate political forces after 42 years of Moammar Gaddhafi's rule. Rémi Ochlik—Polaris
Sept. 25, 2011. Rebel fighters after they overran Moammar Gaddhafi's Tripoli headquarters and trashed the symbols of his 42-year dictatorship.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 25, 2011. Libyans in the city of Misrata celebrate following the official declaration of liberation of the entire country.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Aug., 25, 2011. Rebels fighters in the Abu Slim neighborhood of Tripoli capture a Gaddhafi mercenary.Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
May 1, 2011. A rebel stonghold shelled by Gaddhafi forces outside Ajdabiya, Libya. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
March 20, 2011. Libyan men mourn the dead at a funeral near a hospital in the city of Benghazi. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 22, 2011. The body of Libya's ex-strongman Moammar Gaddhafi on mattresses inside the cold storage room of a vegetable market near a mosque on the outskirts of Misrata, Libya. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 23, 2011. Libyans celebrate following the official declaration of liberation of the entire country, in the city of Misrata, Libya. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
March 11, 2011. An opposition fighter on the front lines at Ras Lanouf, Libya. Rémi Ochlik—Bureau 233/Polaris
Oct. 23, 2011. French photojournalist Remi Ochlik in Misrata, Libya. Ochlik was killed Feb. 22, 2012, by Syrian shelling of the opposition stronghold Homs. Lucas Dolega—Polaris

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