Last Updated on April 1, 2015 by PixelPluck
“I was using a telephoto lens, and she thought it was a weapon”. The heart breaking photograph by Turkish photographer Osman Sağırlı went viral last week virtue of Twitter and Reddit.
The young Syrian girl in the photograph is named Hudea and understandably thought the photographer’s camera was a weapon. Upon seeing it she threw her hands in the air and surrendered. At just four years old the world is still a mystery and confusion between objects is appropriately normal and part of learning. So it’s truly heartbreaking that this little Syrian girl is more used to seeing guns than cameras, especially in this now image conscious, self-obsessed celebrity world.
The original post has been retweeted more than 20,000 times. On Friday the image was shared on Reddit, prompting another outpouring of emotion. It’s received more than 9,000 upvotes, and 2,000 comments.
BBC Trending spoke to Sağırlı – now working in Tanzania – to confirm the origins of the picture. The child is in fact not a boy, but a four-year-old girl, Hudea. The image was taken at the Atmeh refugee camp in Syria, in December last year. She travelled to the camp – near the Turkish border – with her mother and two siblings. It is some 150 km from their home in Hama.
The photograph was first published in a Turkish newspaper back in January. Although it went viral in Turkey at the time, it took several months for the powerful image to make its way around the world.
“I was using a telephoto lens, and she thought it was a weapon”.
Source : BBC