A Palestinian mother grieves after her child was killed by Israeli military forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, 2002.
Photographer: Paolo Pellegrin
Date: 2002
Haunting, melancholy. The grieving mother is perhaps in mid-breath, eyes closed, as though she is summing up the courage to navigate the remainder of life without her angel. To her left, another woman’s face is shadowed and hidden. The grief has swallowed her whole, too. Even the tree in background looms like a plume of smoke after another air raid, a reminder of loss, a threat of more to come.
I’ve looked at this image many times over the years. I think by design, there is little definition in the photograph. It is rushed, almost smeared, truly a fleeting moment of sheer vulnerability and emptiness. There are bodies here but no longer any souls, just shells. I will never be certain what photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin intended to capture, but there is no denying the deep pain, the failures of humanity, transmitted through each and every blurred pixel.