Photographs and text by
Michael Christopher Brown for Newsweek
Standing in a room in some compound on the outskirts of Misrata, I did not have time to think. Guards shuffled people in and out of the room quickly, and with every picture I took, a guard was shaking me to go. I tried to go inside the room again, and eventually made three trips—ultimately photographing National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil looking over the body of Gaddafi amidst the crowd.
After months of getting to know the Libyan people and learning about the horrors they endured under Gaddafi, it was strange to see the man—the dictator—lying in a refrigerated room on a mattress, uncovered and scraped of life. The man was stripped of his robes and power, and could now have been any one of the hundreds of dead I have seen in this war.
Many walked out of that room with deep feeling showing in their faces. Smiling but not really smiling—showing an expression that betrays a depth of emotion for which there are few words. The Libyan people were finally standing over this man who had taken everything from them, and tomorrow they will see a new beginning. A man dead and a new country is born.
Michael Christopher Brown has been photographing in Libya on and off since February 2011.
