Adem Altan, a photographer for 40 years, 15 of them working for AFP, was taking pictures in front of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria, when he suddenly saw the man sitting in the rubble. As no rescue team had yet reached the Turkish city on Tuesday, a day after the earthquake that has already left some 40,000 dead in both countries, the inhabitants themselves were trying to clear the ruins to save their loved ones.
The man in the orange jacket stood motionless in the tumult, impervious to the rain and cold. Adem Altan then realized that the man, 60 meters from him, had a hand in his. He began to shoot his camera to immortalize the scene: the father holding the hand of his dead daughter without letting go, among the rubble and devastation. As Adem took the photos, the man followed him with his eyes.
"Take pictures of my daughter," she murmured in Adem's direction, her voice cracking and shaky. She released her hand for a moment to show the photographer where her 15-year-old daughter lay. Soon enough, she took her hand again. "I was very emotional at that moment. She had tears. She said to myself: 'My God, it's unbearable pain,' "says the photographer.
Adem then asked her name and that of her daughter. "My daughter, Irmak," replied Mesut Hancer. "She spoke with difficulty, in a very low voice. It was difficult to ask her more questions, since the people around her asked people to be silent so that they could hear the voices of the possible survivors trapped under the rubble, "says the photographer. At that moment, he immediately thought that the image summed up the pain of the earthquake victims.
I had no idea the impact it would have. Published on the front pages of the world press, the photograph went viral on social media, shared hundreds of thousands of times by shocked internet users. Adem Altan has received thousands of messages from around the world with expressions of solidarity and emotion at the grief of this dejected father. "I think it is a photo that will remain in the memory. Many people have told me that they will never forget this image," he says. Neither did he.
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