34 29 June 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113Photo Insight
I
t’s highly likely you will
already be familiar with
this World Press Photo
award-winning image.
Taken on 12 June 2018 in the
Rio Grande Valley of Southern
Texas on the US-Mexico border,
the image quickly went viral
online and was also widely
used on pages and covers of
traditional media.
Photographer John Moore,
a staff photographer for Getty
Images, took the shot. He has
been covering US immigration
issues for over a decade, a
topic which under the Trump
administration has seen more
column inches than possibly
ever before.
Although the photograph is
relatively simple in composition
and execution, the subject
matter clearly touched a nerve.
It shows Yanela Sanchez, a
two-year-old who had arrived
at the border with her mother,
Sandra Sanchez. At the time,
the Trump administration was
enforcing a so-called ‘Zero
Tolerance’ policy that saw
the children of immigrants
separated from their parents as
a deterrent for others. Yanela
was not separated from her
mother, but nevertheless, theimage was widely credited with
helping to reverse the policy on
20 June 2018.
Speaking at a presentation at
the World Press Photo Festival,
John recalls, ‘I got a call from
the Border Patrol saying we’re
going to allow you to come and
photograph for one day and one
evening. I’d requested more,
but that’s what I got. I spoke
very briefl y with the mother –
she said that they had been
travelling from Honduras for a
month. If they’d been travelling
for a month that means that it
was a diffi cult journey because
it usually doesn’t take that long.
‘They were searched, and then
at the moment when the mother
was asked to set her child on the
ground, the little girl started
crying. I lowered myself onto
one knee, and photographed,
you could say, from the child’s
perspective – I had very little
time to make a picture. I think
I had six frames in total.’
I later caught up with John at
the unveiling of the World Press
Photo exhibition at De Nieuwe
Kerk in central Amsterdam.
Considering he was given access
to the situation by the Border
Patrol’s public relations
department, I was keen to fi ndNamed as World Press Photo of the
Year 2019, this controversial shot was
credited with changing US policy.
Amy Davies discovers more about it
John Moore
A Getty Images Special Correspondent, Moore is the author
of Undocumented: Immigration and Militarization of the
United States-Mexico Border, 2018. He has photographed in
65 countries and was posted internationally for 17 years.
He has spent the past decade documenting immigration.
See Instagram @jbmoorephoto, Twitter @jbmoorephotoCrying Girl
on the Border
© JOHN MOORE - GETT Y IMAGESBy John Moore
out how much of the situation
was controlled. ‘Usually when
I get access to the Border
Patrol, they will allow me to
photograph anything, whether
it’s detaining people, chasing
people or taking them into
custody for political asylum.
They won’t normally let me see
the inside of detention centres- but it’s not like they’re trying
to show me only what they
want me to see,’ he explains.
‘When I go, I want to see
action. Anything that comes
across the radio when I’m with
them is usually fair game for
me to photograph. There’s no
censorship with the images
once they’ve been taken, either.’
Although nobody could have
predicted just how widely this
image would be shared – or
the impact it would have – it’s
extremely important for the
subjects of John’s photographs
to give informed consent. ‘I
always like to speak to people
fi rst and tell them who I am,
so they don’t confuse me for a
federal agent,’ he says. ‘I would
not want that power imbalance
to make them feel that they had
to be photographed. I want to
give them the option to say no,
and I respect that. Sometimes
people don’t want their faces
© 2012 ABBY KRAFTOWITZ shown, and I’m happy to.
.
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