Hetherington's first job was that of a trainee at The Big Issue, in London.
He was their sole staff photographer, photographing homeless shelters, demonstrations, dockers' strikes, boxing gyms, celebrities, etc.
He was not fond of his celebrity assignments, wanting to focus on what he believed to be more serious stories.
He spent much of the next decade in West Africa, documenting political upheaval and its effects on daily life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and other countries.
Hetherington worked as a photographer on the films Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback (2007).
In 2006, Hetherington took a break from image-making to work as an investigator for the United Nations Security Council's Liberia Sanctions Committee.

Hetherington made several trips to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 with writer Sebastian Junger, on assignment for Vanity Fair.
They were embedded with a single U.S. Army platoon (Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team) serving at a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley.
They filmed the 2010 documentary film Restrepo there, and Afghanistan – The Other War, which was broadcast on ABC News's Nightline programme.
Hetherington's book Infidel is based on the same platoon.


In 2010 he directed the short film Diary:
Diary is a highly personal and experimental film that expresses the subjective experience of my work, and was made as an attempt to locate myself after ten years of reporting.
It's a kaleidoscope of images that link our western reality to the seemingly distant worlds we see in the media.
Hetherington's first job was that of a trainee at The Big Issue, in London. He was their sole staff photographer, photographing homeless shelters, demonstrations, dockers' strikes, boxing gyms, celebrities, etc. He was not fond of his celebrity assignments, wanting to focus on what he believed to be more serious stories. He spent much of the next decade in West Africa, documenting political upheaval and its effects on daily life in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and other countries. Hetherington worked as a photographer on the films Liberia: An Uncivil War (2004) and The Devil Came on Horseback (2007). In 2006, Hetherington took a break from image-making to work as an investigator for the United Nations Security Council's Liberia Sanctions Committee.
Hetherington made several trips to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 with writer Sebastian Junger, on assignment for Vanity Fair. They were embedded with a single U.S. Army platoon (Second Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team) serving at a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley. They filmed the 2010 documentary film Restrepo there, and Afghanistan – The Other War, which was broadcast on ABC News's Nightline programme. Hetherington's book Infidel is based on the same platoon.

In 2010 he directed the short film Diary:
Diary is a highly personal and experimental film that expresses the subjective experience of my work, and was made as an attempt to locate myself after ten years of reporting. It's a kaleidoscope of images that link our western reality to the seemingly distant worlds we see in the media.
Tim Hetherington