Six months ago, when Tim Hetherington died, I had just returned to New York from the Liberia-Ivory Coast border. His work, which I thought of often, was with me then as I made the difficult adjustment from humanitarian crisis to Brooklyn life.

Yesterday, when Gaddafi died, I was teaching a photography workshop to a group of Liberians, using Tim’s book as a guide. It was hard to get them to move on to the next activity — they could have easily spent the rest of the day looking at Long Story Bit by Bit. I was reminded, once again, of the importance of his work to both an international audience and Liberians.

On the Lens, Mike Kamber speaks at length about what kind of photographer Tim was and his important legacy.

More than any journalist I know, Tim was conceptual in his work. He thought about the big ideas behind an event, the dynamics, history and driving forces. He then tailored his photography and multimedia work accordingly, trying to dig through and expose these forces. His methods stood in stark contrast to many of us who photograph what fate and others present to us, unwittingly allowing the narrative to be shaped through our acquiescence.

In an astonishingly wide-ranging oeuvre that ran from photo books to articles and film to personal videos, Tim smashed boundaries and enlarged our understanding of what a documentarian and journalist could be.

“I’ve never seen myself as a war photographer,” Tim said in an interview withGlenna Gordon. “This is about narrative. I’m very open to any visual conceits and any possibilities at my disposal to better explain to people the ideas I’m exploring. I like art photography, I like still life, I like war photography. I like to include everything to weave a tapestry to explain to someone, ‘What happened?’”

I’m honored that Mike brought up the thoughts Tim shared with me a couple of years ago, and reminded, once again, of what a loss his death was, not just to his loved ones and his friends around the globe, but also to the world of image making and journalism.

If you’re in New York, make sure you stop by the opening of Tim’s Libya work at the Bronx Documentary Center. 

Volunteers have spent the past five months building the Bronx Documentary Center in Tim Hetherington’s memory. This weekend, his work from Libya will be shown there for the first time. Next week, classes of high school students will visit the gallery to learn about journalism, the Libyan revolution and Tim Hetherington. The BDC is located at 614 Courtlandt Ave. in the Bronx.

Follow @followbdc and @nytimesphoto on Twitter.

The photos I took of Prince Johnson back in 2009 are making the rounds. Back in 2009, I drove over to Duport Road listening to Michael Jackson – he had died that morning – and feeling apprehnsive about entering a warlord’s home alone.

I had nothing to fear, of course, except for being assaulted with self aggrandizing revisionist history. See my interview with him on Foreign Policy here. 

Now, years later, his name in the headlines, I wonder why people are surprised that he’s backing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She’s got the money, and CDC has publicly said they will implement Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations. That might be an offensive aimed at EJS, but our friend Prince would suffer consequences as well.

His support for EJS is important, but victory for her party is still far from a sure thing.

Below are my favorite photos from the PJ craziness of 2009. The first is of a room in the Capital building where I spent hours and hours waiting. The second is PJ with his pet eagle. I mentioned the eagle to another journalist who went to interview Johnson, and he returned from the interview with news that the eagle has died.

Above Waterside. Monrovia, October 2011. 

Voting in Liberia’s elections yesterday was calm and organized. I spent most of the day in Bomi County waiting for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to vote, and then came back to Monrovia in the evening.

EJS stood in line for nearly half an hour before a special line for the “elderly” was created so she could be vast tracked to vote. I hear the Tubman and Weah didn’t wait in line at all.

All photos copyright Glenna Gordon/AFP

I took this portrait of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in August 2009 for the New York Times Magazine. The interviewer, Deborah Solomon, is often hard on her subjects and I worried about future access to the president because of being associated with what could have potentially been a stern piece. I had nothing to fear, as the west continues to embrace Ellen while she struggles at home.

Liberian women drive around in a white stretch limo Staten Island, New York for a Mother’s Day celebration in 2011. During decades of political unrest, many Liberians fled and found a new home in Staten Island. While the fifth borough is often thought of as home to white middle class Italians, its black population grew 12 percent last year, mainly due to influxes of African refugees. Staten Island isn’t the only place seeing an influx of Africans — more than 10 percent of new green cards awarded in 2010 were given to African immigrants. 

I’m positively thrilled that this image from Staten Island has received an award from FotoWeek DC – second place for a single image of photojournalism/social documentary! Many thanks to the FotoWeek judges, and of course, my friends on the Island.

See more photos from Staten Island here.

Had an amazing time in Lagos! Though much too short, but Liberian elections beckon. More soon, but for now, read about the festival on the Lagos Photo blog. 

I’m off to Nigeria this morning, but I’ll be back in Monrovia on Monday for the election showdown and big fist round vote on Tuesday.

A couple snaps from the CDC rally on Friday. No talk of the EJS Nobel, but that’s not surprising. CDC, the main opposition party, will use this as another opportunity to point out that Ellen’s accolades abroad don’t mean changes for Liberia.

All photos copyright Glenna Gordon/AFP