' Photographers have close to the action. Sometimes also in the vicinity of "-the guardian"

Rebel fighters carry a wounded comrades in Misurata, Libya on the 20 April 2011. photo: Chris Hondros / Getty Images Europe

In a world controlled closely, war is the last frontier of the raw reality PR-led media. To the photo-journalist, this is the ultimate attraction, even if it means with a view to the nature of the risks involved, usually only soldiers are exposed. This game grim claimed two more victims of this week, Tim Hetherington, and Chris Hondros when they were hit by fire from Government forces in Misurata, Libya.

The escalating civil war is drawing experienced and less experienced photographers from around the world. In a sense, it is the ideal war for photographers - colorful, anarchic standing professional army rebels. Compared to Afghanistan, the access to this conflict is simple. To cover the Afghanistan conflict in a meaningful way to photographers with the Western armies, be embedded i.e. apply to and work with ministries of defence and their press minders. In Libya you have the $ and the courage to just follow the road in Benghazi and from there on the front always move. The inexperienced learn quickly in these situations, but they also know that, like bomb disposal soldier, will close to the action. Sometimes also in the vicinity. That most worshipped all war photographers Robert Capa, it so: "If the images are not good enough, you not close are enough."

But war is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Bombers and IEDs are battles fought at longer distances, with long-range missiles, drone of fighters who placed melting into the landscape. Photographers will document the soldiers reduced to one side or another. Many pictures of the Libyan conflict so far were of very dressed rebels some poses with oversized guns, somewhat misleading Carnival aspect of the uprising have awarded. The news of the death of Hetherington and Hondros's hosted this war on the blood, the quiet in the desert sand was shed.

Guardian picture Desk received a strong picture last week two rebel fighters posing with a gun. We had lemon colored one jumper and big hair in the wind, have been so much better suitable body armor and a helmet would be. This Glamorisation the fighter has always been a part of the documentation of the war. Roger Fenton, sometimes intended, to the first British war photographer, able to take portraits of the officers for their family home was in the Crimea in the 1850s. Soon, he realized that there was more he could do with his camera and took some pictures of the aftermath of the battles sharply. The glamour inevitably rubs on the war photographer and introduces to the stereotype hard - drinking self-obsessive in a Keffiyeh scarf. But the painful images, shot by their colleagues, the medics struggling Hetherington and Hondros save strips away the sheen and reminds us of the high prices some numbers.

Sometimes the adrenaline fix by the ultimate gamble, but the best and most successful pretty stable people will appear by the need for said that war photographers are. You acknowledge that the conflict that you want to cover is probably only current event, which could result in truly unforgettable hard news images. They also know that they need to shoot pictures that have received a request for urgent procedure from war-weary editors home, who are desperate to cheer up, back rather than their readers press published. In a BBC interview, Goran Tomasevic, a veteran of Reuters, said: "I have no problem back in my normal life;" Not at all. I just go a few steaks food and drink lots of beer. "I check out the football and I'm happy." Tomasevic's attitude is typical of the leading press photographers - he knows he's coming from risks, but taking also precautions such as all experts. CAPA again: "the war correspondent has his involvement - his life - in his own hands, and he can put it on this horse or the horse, or he can set you back in the bag at the last minute." The world (and not only its media) needs these people: we need to see and have included conflicts. The rest of us are happy that we can tap into their enthusiasm and bravery but it can be sometimes misplaced. At the end, subjects are not important, it is the unadorned truth, which is one of the image on the page or screen.

Hetherington and Hondros worked very differently. Hetherington left a successful Marines stills career after following up his Oscar nominated film documentary about the American in Afghanistan and more video was filming. Hondros was a daily stream of images of his agency, Getty Images submission. In fact the guardian received more of his photographs just hours before he was killed. War photographer will shoot more and more video - and without the back-up, which expect a TV team. But this leads to a new kind of journalism, the immediate and personal, move visual without the reporters between the viewer and the action is. It feeds from the strengths of the photographer, the need to get in close, the need to create a relationship with the fighters he apart from works. All the skills, the traditionally a war photographer. had all these skills, the Hetherington and Hondros.

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