Photograph by Bernat Armangue/Associated Press boston.com/bigpicture
I first came across this photograph in The Big Picture blog of The Boston Globe back in November, and I still can't get it out of my head; it seems to me that one doesn't often see such a strong depiction of the most tender, and, simultaneously, the harshest aspects of the human condition. The picture was taken by Bernat Armangué on 18 November 2012, while he was covering the war in Gaza for the Associated Press. It portrays a Palestinian man kissing the hand of a dead relative in the morgue of Shifa Hospital. TIME selected it as the best photograph of 2012, and TIME LightBox includes the following insightful reflection by Bernat Armangué:
Covering a conflict has never been a pleasure, but since I became a father a year ago, war has become even harder to cover. This day was particularly complicated; 11 members of the Daloo family had been killed when an Israeli missile struck the family’s two-story home in Gaza City, and I spent most of the day taking pictures of bodies being pulled out from beneath the rubble. I took this picture at the end of the day. The morgue was crowded and very noisy. Behind me, a few journalists were filming and taking pictures of four dead children of the Daloo family. In front of me, a group of men that had just stormed into the room were facing the cruel reality of discovering the dead body of a loved one. Everything was happening very fast, but I remember seeing a teardrop falling over the inert hand and whispering “ma’a salama” (goodbye in Arabic). I’ve always thought that war brings out the best and the worst in humans. To me, this was a sad and tender moment of love.
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