This Sunday, The Alice Austen House Museum on Staten Island will host an opening reception for Tim Hetherington's photographic documentation entitled "No Condition is Permanent: Liberia 2003 - 2007," with the photographer attending.

The title Hetherington gave to his exhaustive documentation of war and civil strive forces us to think about the human condition at its most basic level, even before we set eyes on the photographs he has made there.

Four photographs from "No Condition is Permanent," by Tim Hetherington. Courtesy of The Alice Austen House Museum.

I caught up with Tim by email from Afghanistan last week. He offered these thoughts about his experience during the conflict and since: "I was the only photographer to work behind rebel lines during the attacks on Monrovia [in 2003]. Cut off from the outside, it was a surreal world where violence and domesticity co-existed." He went on to say, "My evolving work is an attempt to describe how the events of war intersect with personal lives. I want my images to evoke the contrast between inside and outside, the personal and the historical, the individual and the event."

About the title for this exhibition, he said, "On the back of taxis, Liberians write proverbs and sayings. ‘No food for lazy man' is one of my favorites. ‘No condition is permanent' is another."

Hetherington's raw, emotional, sometimes beautiful photographs force us to pay attention to a nation often portrayed as being in a state of mindless chaos. By documenting the bombardment of the capital city Monrovia, the fall of Charles Taylor in 2003, the subsequent election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and the ongoing humanitarian disaster there, the photographer attempts to bring some order to conflicting events. By capturing personal lives, irrevocably changed by war, he urges viewers to consider the question of how democracy can take hold in a country ravaged by violence.

The reception is on Sunday, September 30, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. The Alice Austen House will also present a screening of "Liberia: An Uncivil War," a film by Tim Hetherington, at 5:30 pm. The exhibition continues through December 31; please check the website for details and directions.

Staten Island is home to one of the largest populations of Liberians outside Africa. Beginning in October, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission will collect testimony there, as reported in The New York Times.

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