Chris Hondros Remembered As A "Prophetic Humanist"

 

 

Mourners Fill Brooklyn Church To Remember A Shining Light

 

By Donald R. Winslow
© 2011 News Photographer magazine

NEW YORK, NY (April 27, 2011) – More than 1,000 friends, relatives, and colleagues filled the pews of a Brooklyn Catholic church today, while yet another 1,000 around the globe watched streaming video online, as a funeral Mass was said for photojournalist Chris Hondros at the very church altar where was to be married in August.

A senior photojournalist for Getty Images, Hondros was covering the rebel uprising in Misrata, Libya, last Wednesday (April 20) when he and British photojournalist Tim Hetherington were struck and killed by mortar or rocket-propelled grenade fire.

Two other photojournalists were seriously injured in the shelling, but they are expected to fully recover.

Hondros, 41, was memorialized at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary and St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in a Mass that featured performances of some of his favorite classical music and remembrances from his fiancée, Christina Piaia, and his younger brother, Dean Hondros, and his photography director at Getty Images, Pancho Bernasconi.

Hondros and Piaia were to be married at the church on August 6. Today at the funeral she read to mourners a few opening lines from a sealed love letter she'd written for her future husband that was intended to be opened at their nuptials.

"How I wish this was our wedding day," Piaia told the mourners, "but we're here today for a more profound reason. I read you these lines not to sadden your fallen hearts, but to show you how profound our love was," she said. "Chris knew this, he felt this. He did not take this love for granted." She closed by whispering, tearfully, "To my dear Chris – I love you, I love you ...".

"We all lost it at some point" during the funeral, Getty photojournalist John Moore said afterwards, "but there wasn't a dry eye in the place when Christina read the letter."

Online, photojournalists around the world watched the funeral live and in a USTREAM chat room they shared memories and condolences and tears. Checking in, friends and coworkers of Hondros and Hetherington announced they were watching from Iran, Berlin, Jerusalem, Dubai, South Africa, Mexico City, Paris, Denver, Indiana, Brussels, Austin, Switzerland, South Carolina, and Baghdad.

Getty photojournalist and friend Paula Bronstein tried three locations in Kabul, Afghanistan, before she found an Internet connection that would hold on strong enough to stream the video. Finally the Internet connection in an Associated Press house worked well enough for her to watch the service, and as dawn approached in Afghanistan she told News Photographer magazine via Skype that she thinks the news photography division at Getty will be "forever changed" by the loss of her friend.

"We're a relatively small staff compared to AP and the others, we're a much smaller group," she said. "And until now we've never lost a photographer. Given the talent pool we have, we have pretty close relationships. And Pancho [Bernasconi] is incredibly caring. Everyone's a great team player. But I think that during this past week, some of that 'corporate' environment is gone and we became a family."

Today's Mass was interspersed with live performances of classical music, a favorite of the late New Yorker, including Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor ("Death & The Maiden"), Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 18 No. 1 in F Minor, and selections from Mahler and Bach.

Father Anthony J. Sansone, the officiating priest, likened Hondros to a "prophetic humanist" and told a story about Pope John Paul II's response to being asked how he wanted to be remembered. The Holy Father, Sansone said, told an inquiring journalist that a prophetic humanist is someone who "bends down to the ones who are suffering, and is one who speaks out about the present, not the future, and says, 'I am on this journey with you, and I speak for you, and I am your friend.'"

Father Sansone said Hondros had many components of being a prophetic humanist in both his photographs and in his life. The priest said that the photojournalist "ran through the streets with people who were at war, and he spoke for them, and his photographs said to us, 'This is something that we must look at.' We must look at the people who are in need, not to the future but look at 'now'".

Sansone said, "Chris is the kind of person who could call 1,000 people to this church this afternoon. He never ran away from reality, in his life or in his pictures, so much so that in the end it even took his life from this earth." The priest talked about the role Hondros's conscience played in his photographs, and said "the conscience is where man meets God, and at war the moment in which Chris met the reality of Jesus was in his conscience."

Remembering that it wasn't very long ago when Hondros and his fiancée came to the sanctuary for a brief rehearsal of their August wedding, Father Sansone said he remembers that the photographer seemed distracted and kept looking around at the sanctuary, as if he wasn't paying much attention to what was being said. The priest said Hondros was looking into every corner, peering around the ceiling and windows, and checking out the building "from ceiling to floor."

"What's wrong?" he said Hondros's fiancée eventually asked him. At which point the prospective groom told the priest, "Father, this is going to work out ... This is good. This is the place where I can profess my love to Christina. This place, this is what I'm about."

To the welcome laughter of mourners, Father Sansone said that he told Hondros, jokingly, "I'm so glad you approve!"

The homily ended with Father Sansone saying that he thought Hondros "was a man, a prophet, a humanist, and a king. He realized that life would be worthless unless it is lived it for others. He did what he did not for awards, but to tell the story of those who still suffer. When you live this way, you leave an imprint on the world."

"We must also live our lives for others, or we will have not understood our brother Chris," Sansone said. "We need to continue his work, and not run away from it."

The service also included Scripture readings by longtime friend and photographer Jeff Swensen, of Pittsburgh, and the photojournalist's brother, Dean Hondros. Eric Schofield led the prayers of the people between readings, and personal remembrances were delivered by journalist Greg Campbell (who was with Hondros in Libya a week before he was killed), reporter Regis Le Sommier of Paris Match magazine, and Hondros's photography director at Getty Images, Bernasconi.

"Chris had such a good heart, even thought he saw the worst in life," Bernasconi said.

"He was a rare friend who would lift you up just when you thought the pain was unbearable. To send his work out to the world meant so much to us. Chris lived an extraordinary life, and his pictures will endure for future generations."

Le Sommier remembered working on stories on patrol with troops in Afghanistan and Hondros, and of a particular pair of boots the photographer frequently wore and the ever-present danger of buried landmines and explosives. Le Sommier said he recalls the boots so vividly because as they followed mine sweepers and explosives experts, he often walked directly in the photographer's footsteps for safety – and Hondros would walk in his boot prints for the same reason.

"We followed in each other's steps. I wonder whose steps it will be that I follow now when I return to Afghanistan," Le Sommier said.

Hetherington, whose funeral is scheduled for May 13 in London, was also remembered in prayers at the Mass today, as well as prayers offered for all photojournalists who cover war and those who live and die with the violence of war every day.

Because the sanctuary was overflowing with mourners, many people today stood together in the back.

"For those of us standing the trade-off for not being able to hear the audio perfectly was viewing the Hondros photographs that were on display," NPPA president Sean D. Elliot said tonight.

"Photos by Chris, photos of Chris, with his family and friends ... Chris was not abstract in any way as we listened to the eulogies offered from the pulpit while looking at a myriad of his expressions. The thing that touched me was that he touched so many people, personally and professionally, and I'm sure there are so many people – like me – who have been moved over the years by his work."

Hondro's casket was wheeled into the Mass by pallbearers Todd Heisler, Tyler Hicks, John Moore, Jeff Swensen, Joe Raedle, Andreas Gebhard, Spencer Platt, and Pierce Wright.

As today's service ended and the crowd emptied the church onto Brooklyn's streets, many headed for neighborhood bars and a continuation of the remembrances, the photographer's casket was carried out of the sanctuary and down the stairs by funeral home staff. The pallbearers were followed out of the church by Hondros's grief-stricken mother, Inge Hondros of Fayetteville, NC, who was comforted by fiancée Christina and his brother, Dean.

"I've never seen a gathering outside of a funeral linger for so long," Elliot said. "Usually as soon as the hearse leaves everyone disperses. But this crowd just lingered and continued to commiserate and console each other." He said Hondros's fiancée stayed with the gathered crowd, greeting the mourners who waited to speak with her to offer their wishes and stories.

"I told her Chris was a shining light in this profession, but more importantly he was a special person who will be sorely missed," Elliot said.

On Friday in Fayetteville, NC, a wake will be held for Hondros beginning at 6 p.m. eastern time at the Rogers & Breece Funeral Home, 500 Ramsey Street.

Final funeral and burial services will be the next day, Saturday April 30, 2011, at 11 a.m. eastern time at the Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 614 Oakridge Ave., in Fayetteville.

A fund has been established in the photographer's memory to provide scholarships for aspiring photojournalists and to raise awareness of issues surrounding conflict photography.

Donations can be sent to: The Chris Hondros Fund, c/o Getty Images, 75 Varick Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10013.

Terry John, Sean D. Elliot, Jim Estrin, and Brian Storm contributed reporting to this story.

 

 

 

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