PARIS (AP) — Remi Ochlik, a rising star of French photojournalism who covered riots in Haiti and the upheaval sweeping across the Arab world, was killed Wednesday in a shelling attack in Syria. He was 28.
The native of eastern France who founded the photo agency IP3 Press was killed along with U.S. war reporter Marie Colvin after Syrian forces besieged the central city of Homs, French officials said.
Less than two weeks ago, Ochlik's 12-photo series entitled "Battle For Libya" won first prize in the general news category of the prestigious 2012 World Press Photo contest.
IP3's website said Ochlik (pronounced Osh-LEEK) also covered rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt last year and his work has featured in publications including Paris Match and Time magazines as well as The Wall Street Journal.
"He was really a photographer with a lot of promise," said Soazig Dollet, a researcher with the North Africa-Middle East desk of Reporters Without Borders, a French media advocacy group.
Ochlik was a friend of Lucas Dolega, a photographer with EPA agency who died in January last year after being hit by a tear gas canister while he was covering Tunisia's revolution, Dollet said.
The French lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, paid tribute to Ochlik before opening its public session on Wednesday.
In 2004, at 20 years old, Ochlik got his professional start by covering riots in Haiti linked to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, winning the Francois Chalais Award for Young Reporters.
Ochlik went on to cover social unrest, politics, sports and other news events, friends said. But it was last year, as revolutions and upheaval swept across the Arab world, that he won the coveted World Press Photo award.
"He was very serious, he didn't take risks," said Yoan Valat, an EPA photographer who worked and traveled with Ochlik in Morocco and Tunisia. "While he was young, he had a lot of experience."
Until last week, Ochlik had been on assignment for Paris Match — arguably France's best-known weekly — but the magazine then called him off because the situation in Syria was too dangerous, colleagues said.
"He went back because he felt his work wasn't done," Valat said.
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