André Liohn

"You are not a soldier" - 2021 - In an attempt to understand what drove her father's desires to be on the frontlines, documentary director Maria Carolina Telles dives into the story of award-winning war photographer André Liohn. André was a man who struggled with his own internal grief, often choosing to immerse himself in some of the world's most notorious conflict zones. Highly decorated for his work, including the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal, his life takes a drastic turning point shortly after the death of his colleagues Tim Hetherington, Chris Hondros, Marie Colvin and James Foley. Having witnessed immeasurable suffering and fear, he begins to question his motives for placing himself in such danger and examines the disturbing but fine line between the life and death he has witnessed and to what end he will go to reveal those truths.

In the 2015 article written for Vice, "A War Photographer Returns Home", Giancarlo Roma, son of American photographer Thomas Roma and grandson of photographer Lee Friedlander described André as follow: "For anyone who knows conflict photographer André Liohn, he's among the first people that comes to mind when asked the question, "Who would you want on your side in a bar fight?" Liohn is not tall, but it's clear upon meeting him that he possesses a strength, physically and otherwise, that only comes with living through true hardship. He also exclusively wears black, rides a Harley, and has a tattoo on his right forearm that reads "REFUGEE" in block letters."

In 2014, Lelo Filho – actor, producer, director, author and one of the founders of Cia Baiana de Patifaria – challenged himself to set up the project Fora da Ordem, winner of the 2013 Myriam Muniz Award from FUNARTE, inspired by a homonymous song by Caetano Veloso. The play addresses themes such as; dictatorship, racism, homophobia, violence, holy wars, and social intolerance.

In 2012, with fellow photographers Christopher Morris, Jehad Nga, Bryan Denton, Lynsey Addario, Eric Bouvet and Finbarr O'Reilly, he created the project Almost Dawn in Libya, four photo exhibits in the main Libyan cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Misurata and Zintan. The project gained great media coverage and was funded partly by a crowdfunding campaign hosted by the website Emphas.is and partly by the international NGO International Medical Corps. The project's idea was to use photojournalism as a possible bridge for reconciliation in Libya after its civil war. The exhibits were curated by Italian curator Annalisa D'Angelo and photographer Paolo Pellegrin.

In 2011 he became the first Latin American photojournalist to receive the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal by the Overseas Press Club for his work on the Libyan Civil War and nominated by the Prix Bayeux-Calvados des Correspondants de Guerre. His work documenting the challenges faced by health care personal working in conflict areas has been used by the ICRC's Health Care in Danger project, denouncing cases of violence against health care personal around the world

In April 2010, Liohn made public the case where the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grantee and World Press Photo winner, Marco Vernaschi, forced a Ugandan mother to exhume her recently deceased child, offering payment after the fact. Liohn learned about the case after visiting Uganda to report on cases of human sacrifices and after observing vague photo captions written by Vernaschi, that he was not present at the time of burial and had, in essence, staged a photo and offered payment in return. After notifying the Pulitzer Center and the photojournalist Anne Holmes, who subsequently removed an interview with Vernaschi that had previously been on her blog, Liohn went public on the journalist's forum Lightstalkers. The story drew more attention when Roy Greenslade wrote it up in The Guardian. As of October 2011, the Pulitzer Center remains firmly behind Vernaschi's work, although it has withdrawn several images from this and another story (where questions were raised about the ethics of showing the face and genitalia of a child who had suffered genital mutilation) and hosted a debate and discussion about the photographer's working methods, journalistic integrity, and professional ethics.

André Liohn (born November 9, 1974) is a freelance photojournalist born in Botucatu, Brazil, frequently contributing to the publications Der Spiegel, L'Espresso, Time, Newsweek, Le Monde, Veja and others.