A war photo reporter’s job is to take pictures, no matter what’s happening in front of their camera. However, when a massive explosion destroyed a convoy of buses full of evacuees in Syria in April 2017, photographer Abd Alkader Habak didn’t think about doing his job: it was his powerful feeling that made him leave his camera on the ground and pick up a boy severely injured by the blast.
“The scene was shocking — especially watching at children screaming and dying in front of you,” Abd Alkader Habak told CNN. “So I chose along with my colleagues that we’d put our cameras down and start saving injured people.”
The explosion reportedly killed 126 people. Habak says that the little boy was still breathing and moving when he was put in the ambulance. Another photographer caught the courageous moment on camera, and then another photograph was taken depicting Habak crying on his knees next to the body of another child. “I was overcome with emotion,” Habak said. “What I and my colleagues witnessed can't be described in words.”
Warning: graphic content below.
Baladi news
Baladi news
Baladi news
(Warning: the next image shows the bodies of victims lying beside a bombed bus.)
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Witnessing and helping are not simple opposites
Abd Alkader Habak’s account describes a moment when he and colleagues chose to help injured people. His retained quotations explain that decision in his own words. The story should not begin from a rule that photographers must keep shooting regardless of events; circumstances, ability to help and the people present all matter.
The photographs record different roles within the same emergency. Habak’s account describes his decision to help, while another photographer documented that action. One image therefore does not settle a simple opposition between taking photographs and caring about people; documenting events and offering assistance can occur across a group in the same scene.
The quoted recollection should stay attached to the person who gave it. A still frame cannot tell us everything that happened before or after it, and the reported condition of the child at the ambulance does not establish a later medical outcome.
When sharing the image, retain the location, reporting period and warning about distressing content. Avoid adding an invented ending to make the story more uplifting or more tragic. The account is already significant because it records people responding under extreme conditions, with uncertainty about details that the photographs cannot resolve. Respect for those pictured includes acknowledging that their lives extend beyond the moment that became widely known.
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