Across a myriad of demographics, from race to religion to age to geographic location, people are drawn to children. Thus, when photographers choose children as the primary subjects of images, they tend to receive significant attention and evoke powerful emotions. Lorenzo Tugnoli’s feature essay of the famine in Yemen contains many such images, in order to draw attention to a humanitarian crisis that received little coverage or support across the world.
Lorenzo Tugnoli, awardee of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography, is an Italian photographer who primarily covers the Middle East and Central Asia. Initially drawn in by its cultural similarities to his home country, Tugnoli spent several years residing in and familiarizing himself with the Middle East. His photojournalistic approach is one of integrity and cultural empathy. Tugnoli recognizes that the media can create, destroy, and distort stories. Seeing this has made Tugnoli approach assignments with care. For his Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Tugnoli was not simply in the right place at the right time. He spent a significant amount of his occupational period learning the local languages and customs in order to build a connection with the community, a practice that has greatly contributed to making his work stand out because he finds the time to see the residents as people and not as subjects.
The photographs within Tugnoli’s series do not have individual titles, but rather captions that contextualize the scenes. This photograph was taken of Taif Fares, a child in the ICU at the al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, Yemen. While she is seen fighting for life in the image, the caption disclosed that she passed away a few days after the photo was taken on May 21, 2018. Taif’s life was one of many that were put at risk and taken by the tragic famine and military offensives occurring in Yemen.
Within a series of powerful images, this photograph jumped out at me. The contrast of color and size lend themselves to a captivating yet disturbing image. It is notable that the first point of interest within the image is not actually the subject; when glancing at the photo, our eyes first find the vibrant swaths of fabric. Upon closer look, the intended subject is the small child, Taif Fares, gasping for air. The contrast of size between Taif and the hospital bed emphasizes her small frame, making her malnourishment all the more evident. Further, Taif’s pale, flat coloring is juxtaposed with richly saturated patterns. This color contrast develops the morbidity of the scene; as color equates to liveliness, the lack of it on Taif’s body intensifies the reality of her condition. The image is disturbing - it defies the liveliness we hope and expect to see in a child.
This photograph tells a distinct story intended to raise awareness of the crisis and evoke sympathy for Yemenis. Coupled with the visual elements of color and size as described, the composition of this photograph serves to emphasize the tragedy of Taif’s story. The high-angle shot used to capture the image conveys the immense vulnerability of the subject. This effect is reinforced by the placement of Taif’s body in the lower half of the frame; she appears smaller and powerless. However, while taken from above, the shot is not so angled that it over-dramatizes the scene. Instead, it is from such a realistic perspective that it is as though the viewer could be the one looking down upon Taif’s hospital bed. This viewpoint makes the photograph more tangible to the audience and establishes a connection between the viewers and the subject thus enabling the evocation of sympathy.
In summary, the visual elements of the image come together to convey a sense of vulnerability and tragedy that contributes to the untold story of the humanitarian crisis occurring in Yemen. As dictated in the Pulitzer ceremony, Tugnoli’s images convey “beauty and composure…intertwined with devastation,” capturing the conflicted world Tugnoli observed over his time in the Middle East.