Appreciation: Photojournalist Tim Hetherington

By Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY

In the internationally acclaimed journalist team, Sebastian Junger was supposed to be the words man, telling the story behind Tim Hetherington's arresting photo images. But even the prolific Junger was at a loss for the right words to describe the death of his colleague on Wednesday.

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  By Tim Hetherington, Outpost Films via AP

  Tim Hetherington, right, shot this photo of himself and Sebastian Junger at the Restrepo outpost in Afghanistan while filming the documentary.

By Tim Hetherington, Outpost Films via AP

Tim Hetherington, right, shot this photo of himself and Sebastian Junger at the Restrepo outpost in Afghanistan while filming the documentary.

"There is no way to express my devastation and sorrow at the death of my dear friend," he said in a statement. "Tim was one of the most courageous and principled journalists I have ever known."

The British-born, Brooklyn-based Hetherington, 41, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade explosion in the Libyan city of Misrata. He was working on a multimedia project showcasing humanitarian issues in the war-torn land, his family confirmed Wednesday. Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros also was killed in the explosion; photojournalists Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown were injured.

Hetherington's last report on his Twitter page on Tuesday showed the kind of peril the veteran war correspondent faced. "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata," he wrote. "Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."

For their 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, Hetherington and Junger (author of The Perfect Storm) had embedded themselves with a platoon of U.S. soldiers in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, dubbed at the time "the deadliest place on Earth." Their work took home the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

His work and commitment to showcasing the realities of conflict made a lasting impression. "Tim's work left an indelible impression on me and on the world at large," Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow said in a statement. "Through his brilliant images, Tim humanized conflicts in Liberia, Afghanistan and beyond, bringing a sense of urgency to crises that were otherwise overlooked or left unknown."

One of Restrepo's strengths was highlighting the plight of the everyday soldier in Afghanistan: The film is named after Pfc. Juan Restrepo, a charismatic platoon medic who was killed in action during the making of the film.

Restrepo's mother, Marcela Pardo, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., says Hetherington wrote a long letter to her after completing the film to discuss her fallen son. She called the photojournalist "very sweet, humble and a gentleman."

In his statement, Junger added that "The good that he accomplished ? both with his camera, and simply as a concerned person ? cannot be measured."

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