Witness: A World in Conflict Through a Lens

David Frankham's four-part HBO documentary series highlights the work of three photojournalists who specialize in covering extremely dangerous areas. Eros Hoagland aims his camera in two of Latin America's most violent areas: Rio de Janeiro and Juarez, Mexico. Hoagland is a second generation war-zone photographer—his father, John Hoagland, was killed in El Salvador in 1984 while covering the nation's brutal civil war for Newsweek. Michael Christopher Brown works in Libya, where the post-Gaddafi period has been marked by instability and upheaval. And Veronique de Viguerie travels through the world's newest nation, South Sudan, in search of a militia aligned to the infamous warlord Joseph Kony. The photographers' commitment to capturing the gruesome details of the conflicts at the risk of their own safety is admirable (de Viguerie is actually pregnant while on assignment). The two Hoagland episodes are particularly disturbing, especially when one considers the proximity of Juarez to the U.S. and that Rio de Janeiro will be hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Ultimately, while Hoagland, Brown, and de Viguerie certainly deserve praise for their work, the real stories of these war zones do not belong to the people taking the photographs, but rather to those who continue to struggle in these hellish locations long after the photographers have departed. Still, as an eye-opening look at horrific situations framed through the eyes of outside observers, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)