Photos Witness Atrocities Photographer Risks Life As He Records The Horror In Algeria

The numbers of dead in the Algerian massacres have shocked people around the world. The vicious method of killing has stunned them further. But one graphic image may have done more to bring home the horror than all of the words and numbers.

It’s a photo of a woman, her arms outstretched, collapsing on the steps of a hospital as she waits for news of family members wounded in the Bentahla massacre in south Algiers.

With reverence, a French journalist here said of the picture: “It’s like a religious painting.”

The photo was taken by a 42-year-old Algerian working for Agence France-Presse. The French news service asked that the photographer’s name not be used in this article, however. Both the Islamists and the security forces know him well, but AFP fears that added publicity could put him in danger. Journalists have been targeted for death here, and photojournalists who work for foreign organizations face perhaps the greatest danger.

“You can’t make a photograph here without taking a risk,” he said last week over lunch in a hillside restaurant. “We have to take it.”

In five years as a photojournalist, after a career as an editor at an Algerian newspaper, he has covered violence with his cameras in Somalia, Zaire, Rwanda and, of course, Algeria.

“In Rwanda or Somalia, you can see the violence unfold,” he said. “Here in Algeria, you can’t see anything until after it’s over. I’ve never seen such atrocity as in Algeria, with the exception of Rwanda. Well, maybe - just maybe - Rwanda was worse.”

The man is well known for his bravery and fearlessness - those outside the profession might say foolishness - for wading into areas that are unstable and unpredictable.

But he admitted having doubts at times.

“Sometimes I feel I am not responsible. … Sometimes I just forget about the danger. Sometimes I just forget myself,” he said.

He is not married. He lives with his brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. “They are my children,” he said.

Would he leave Algeria?

No: “I was born here. I have family here. I can’t live in other places. Let’s be honest with ourselves. I am not more frightened than any other Algerians. We are all living the danger. I am living like the others.”

On Sept. 23, he went alone to Bentahla, a neighborhood about 12 miles south of downtown Algiers. He was the first journalist to arrive.

“I couldn’t make any good pictures,” he said. “All the victims had been moved to the hospital. So I went to the hospital.”

The army prevented people from entering.

“I was just waiting at the door for an opportunity, and this woman was waiting beside me,” he said. “She wanted to see her family. Several of them were badly hurt. When the security forces wouldn’t allow her in, she started crying and lost all control of herself. She lost consciousness and fell.”

He took the picture.

“I want to be one of the witnesses of history,” he said. “I feel very close to these people. I am Algerian. That’s why I am doing this.”