Remembering a French Photographer Killed On Assignment in Syria Rémi Ochlik, the young photographer who died Wednesday morning in Syria, was the second photographer in a close group of friends to die covering conflicts in the Middle East in just over a year. Mr. Ochlik, 28, was killed early Wednesday in Syria as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad pursued a deadly bombardment of the central city of Homs, according to activists and officials. Marie Colvin, an American journalist working for the Sunday Times of London, was killed along with Mr. Ochlik, a French photographer. The two were among 27 killed in Syria on Wednesday, according to the report. The deaths come less than a week after Anthony Shadid, the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times, died in Syria on his way back to Turkey, reportedly of an asthma attack. Mr. Ochlik covered the 2010 cholera epidemic and presidential elections in Haiti, where he first traveled as a photographer in 2004. Last year he worked in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, where he shot "Battle for Libya," a photo story that won him first prize in the general news category from World Press Photo earlier this month. While Mr. Ochlik was in Tunisia, Lucas Mebrouk Dolega, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency, died from an injury suffered while covering violent street protests. The two were close friends. Mr. Ochlik helped create the Lucas Dolega Award - which was given to Emilio Morenatti - in his friend's memory. Olivier Laban-Mattei, a Paris-based photographer, was with the two when Mr. Dolega died in Tunisia. When Mr. Laban-Mattei decided to take Mr. Dolega's body back to France, Mr. Ochlik said he needed to stay. "He wanted to continue the work of his friend," Mr. Laban-Mattei said over the phone from Paris on Wednesday. "He said, "I want to stay in Tunisia because I have to continue his work; I have to continue to inform the people."" Friends said Mr. Ochlik, who was 20 when he covered his first conflict in Haiti, was dedicated to his work. "It was important to him to cover the story," said Pierre Terdjman, a photographer who met Mr. Ochlik in the field and was also with him in Tunisia when Mr. Dolega died. "He was young and he was very motivated," he added. "He really cared about what he was doing," said Holly Pickett, who met him while shooting in Tunisia. He knew it was dangerous. He was one of the bravest people I've ever seen working. He thought he needed to be close to be able to tell the story. Yoan Valat, 31, a European Press Agency photographer based in Paris, said Mr. Ochlik preferred to cover international issues. "His work has been seen by many people because he was already very good and very accurate," he said. And despite his age, Mr. Valat said, Mr. Ochlik understood the risks he was taking. The need to be there was more important than the risk, for him. Mr. Ochlik was born in Thionville, in the east of France, in 1983. He studied photography at Icart Photo school after high school and began working for the agency Wostok Press. He went to Haiti to photograph the riots after the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. His photographs from that trip were shown at the Visa pour l'Image Photojournalism Festival and were awarded the Francois Chalais Award for Young Reporters. When he created his agency, IP3 Press, the following year, friends had trouble envisioning him as someone's boss. He was reserved and quiet. But he formed close friendships and cared a great deal for his friends. His character and gentle demeanor made him easy to work with, Mr. Valet said. "He was someone who really cared about the people next to him," he said. When he won his World Press award, Mr. Ochlick told the British Journal of Photography, which also reported on his death Wednesday, that he didn't expect to win. "I thought with all the photographers there - including Yuri Kozyrev, Jereome Sessini, Alex Majoli - I had no chance to win," he told the publication. I'm astonished. And happy, of course. Jerome Huffer, an editor at Paris Match, said Mr. Ochlik visited him after Mr. Dolega's death in Tunisia. "We had smoked a cigarette, exchanged our views, had reached agreement on the essentials," he wrote in an email. You could make friends with Rémi after just one cigarette. Mr. Huffer said Paris Match asked Mr. Ochlik to go to Syria last week with one of their journalists, Alfred de Montesquiou. "The situation became dangerous and complex very quickly," he said, before the two arrived in Homs. They managed to escape to the Lebanese border and then to Beirut. We then decided to bring them back home. Rémi decided to try his luck again, by himself. Alfred returned. He added: "Rémi just came into the Paris Match family, by his work and his friendship. He is now part of us forever. Reporting contributed by James Estrin and David Furst.