Tim Hetherington

The grant will be awarded to photographers whose work is based on 'the qualities that defined Tim's career'

Credit: Stephen Kosloff on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch has launched a grant worth €20,000 in honour of Tim Hetherington, the British-born photojournalist killed in Libya this year.

Hetherington, who lived in the US, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Misrata in April. He was understood to be the first British journalist to have been killed since the uprisings began in the country earlier this year.

The joint initiative in his honour was unveiled at the Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan on Saturday.

The grant will be awarded annually to help a photographer complete an existing project on a human rights theme, which is based "the qualities that defined Tim's career".

This includes work which operates across multiple platforms, that "crosses boundaries between breaking news and longer-term investigation" and that shows a moral commitment to those in the images themselves.

Applications can be submitted until 15 October and the first recipient of the grant will be announced on 5 November.

At the time of his death, Human Rights Watch in Libya paid tribute to Hetherington, saying he was "a brilliant photographer and videographer who covered many of the world's most critical human rights stories".

"In every assignment, he demonstrated a remarkable sensitivity to his subjects, a tender insight into their human ordeals, and a keen sense of how visual imagery could be used to effect positive social change."

Three other photographers were also injured in the attack and one of them, Getty Images staff photographer Chris Hondros, later died in hospital.

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