Anton Hammerl

Anton Hammerl was born in 1969 and grew up in South Africa. He worked for South African newspapers and later as a freelance photographer, covering news, sport and life in southern Africa and then wars further afield. He lived in London with his family in the last years of his life.

In April 2011 he travelled to Libya, where rebels were fighting the government of Muammar Gaddafi. On 5 April, near the oil town of Brega, he and three other journalists — James Foley and Clare Morgana Gillis, both American freelancers, and the Spanish photographer Manu Brabo — came under fire from government soldiers. Hammerl was hit and left behind; the others were captured and held for weeks. Only when they were freed, in May, did they reveal that he had been killed. His body was never recovered. For more than six weeks the Libyan government gave misleading accounts of his whereabouts. He held both South African and Austrian citizenship.

His death led to calls for better protection of freelance journalists, who take many of the risks of war reporting with little support. The International Criminal Court briefly looked into the case, and his family has since campaigned for answers.

How to read Hammerl's work: it is mostly record, not display. The pictures show where he was standing and what he chose to stay with, so the work is best viewed alongside the dates and places of his assignments. That reading is this site's own.

Where to see the work

The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Mail & Guardian published accounts of his death and the search for his body in 2011; his family has campaigned since, and Arab News and the Sunday Times have reported on it. See also the Johannesburg photographers of the Bang-Bang Club and our list of South African photographers.