VIENNA, Feb 25, 2013 – Freelance war photographer Olivier Voisin died on Sunday in a Turkish hospital, days after he was wounded in the head and arm while covering the fighting near Idlib, in north-western Syria, according to reports. 

Voisin was hit by an exploding shell on Thursday, Feb. 21, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, noting that Voisin had worked for French and international media. He was brought to Antakya International Hospital later that day, where his succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 24.  He was 38, reports said. 

The Huffington Post website translated from French an email Voisin had a sent to a friend one day before he was injured, in which he wrote about what he had seen, and touched on some of the troubles of his trade: “I've taken the pictures but I'm not even certain that the AFP will accept them.[…] The less I do the less I earn, and I already don't earn much. The days go by and I'm more and more behind with the number of photos [the AFP] want me to take.”

But he also wrote: “It's true that I'm addicted to this damn camera. There are no other drugs as powerful as the adrenaline we get from this incredible feeling of wanting to be alive.” 

IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said: “Olivier Voisin’s death highlights the grave dangers that journalists covering the civil war in Syria face, and chillingly underscores the fact that Syria is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.”

Voisin is the fourth journalist to be killed in Syria this year, according to the IPI Death Watch, and the 44th to be killed since the start of the conflict in 2011.