Hector Emanuel

Peruvian earthquake aftermath

Hector Emanuel is a Peruvian-born photojournalist with a Master’s degree in physics, his photos focus mainly on social and political issues in Latin America and the US. In 2003, he was awarded by the World Press Photo Foundation (and the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism) for his documentation of the civil conflict in Colombia. His photographs have been widely exhibited and he regularly contributes to books, newspapers, magazines (Time, Newsweek, Men’s Journal, Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Washingtonian, etc) and NGO’s (American Red Cross, Greenpeace and Amnesty International). Recently he has been applying his understated documentary style of photography to a variety of magazine portrait assignments.

About the Photograph:

“This photo was taken while covering the aftermath of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Peru for the Red Cross. The earthquake left over 500 dead and over 100,000 homeless. The people in the photo were standing by the side of the road with signs asking for food, water or any other help. Like many of the people in the area they were not only homeless and worried about their future, but also psychologically scarred. I always feel pretty useless – I don’t mean photographically – when covering this kind of story, but it’s even more obvious when shooting for the Red Cross because when one arrives in a car with the Red Cross symbol people have the expectation that you will know how to help them.”