My first thought was the flash of sympathy I’m sure the photographer intended—the photo was actually a color copy made by the earnest young men in the Media Center in Zwara, documenting their revolution on August 31st, just eight days after their town was liberated.
I was familiar with the freedom-fighter aesthetic. I had gone into battle with them, spent a night at the Sabratha fighters’ camp (far more of a taboo for a woman journalist), and interviewed dozens of them in July and August. “We are civilians,” the conventional conversation went. “I didn’t even know how to shoot a gun until a week ago.”
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