--- title: Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph | TIME description: On the third anniversary of Chris Hondros' death, Getty's Director of Photography Pancho Bernasconi talks to TIME about one of Hondros' most poignant and shocking images: that of a blood-soaked young girl in Tal Afar, Iraq canonical: https://time.com/video/9az5vwxp/ og:title: Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph og:description: On the third anniversary of Chris Hondros' death, Getty's Director of Photography Pancho Bernasconi talks to TIME about one of Hondros' most poignant and shocking images: that of a blood-soaked young girl in Tal Afar, Iraq og:url: https://time.com/video/9az5vwxp/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9az5vwxp/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph twitter:description: On the third anniversary of Chris Hondros' death, Getty's Director of Photography Pancho Bernasconi talks to TIME about one of Hondros' most poignant and shocking images: that of a blood-soaked young girl in Tal Afar, Iraq twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9az5vwxp/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph [Watch (HLS stream): Chris Hondros: Behind the Photograph](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9az5vwxp.m3u8) (5:21)  _Published 2014-04-18. On the third anniversary of Chris Hondros' death, Getty's Director of Photography Pancho Bernasconi talks to TIME about one of Hondros' most poignant and shocking images: that of a blood-soaked young girl in Tal Afar, Iraq_ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:24 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Behind the Scenes with Photographer Andrew Moore on America](/video/yxa7kqyu/) ### Behind the Scenes with Photographer Andrew Moore on America [100 Photographs: Tragedy in Iraq](/video/EnQVPE0R/) ### 100 Photographs: Tragedy in Iraq [Behind the Cover: Martin Schoeller Photographs Olympian Ryan Lochte](/video/id51b95x/) ### Behind the Cover: Martin Schoeller Photographs Olympian Ryan Lochte --- ## Transcript In January 2005, actually it was inauguration week and George Bush was about to be inaugurated. Chris was in a little town called [ UNKNOWN ] working in embed force, he had been there multiple times, it seemed like an ordinary embed at that time. Chris called and I've been trying to remember exactly what he said to me, cuz it seemed so poignant, but I for the life of me can't remember exactly what his words were. But I remember that I immediately broke out into a sweat, thinking about what it meant to have those photographs as he described them to me. [ MUSIC ] He understood. The importance of those images. Immediately he understood what it mean to have captured what he captured. That unit had been in a firefight earlier that day, so maybe there had been a heightened level of alert anyway. They decided to do a patrol in the evening, and it was dark. And he describes seeing lights in the distance, and the soldier is recognizing them as well. And the lights getting a little bit closer, and the soldier starting to yell at them to stop. And Chris realizing that there was something going on. The car wasn't stopping, and he talks about the staccato firing of guns, multiple times, over and over again. [ MUSIC ] And the car suddenly just kinda rolled into a stop. I guess, the curb. And then I hear the voices of children crying. [ MUSIC ] And I think from that point it becomes kinda obvious to everyone what's happened. He talks about soldiers opening the door. [ MUSIC ] Turns out to be these six children come out of the car, in various states of shock and screaming. The soldiers looking at the kids. And then, Chris, I think, realizing the parents in the front seat. And he describes the bodies of the dad. Mr. Hassan and the mom. And how the soldiers found body bags and removed the bodies. And move the kids off to the side to check them. [ MUSIC ] Some of them are covered in blood. One of them Recon, a little boy, has an injury on his back. And so they check them. The soldiers then take the kids to the hospital in Tal Afar. Chris was surprised at how well equipped it was. [ MUSIC ] The commander of the unit told the soldiers to make sure that the kids didn't see the parents, that they had enough for one night. [ MUSIC ] Chris's photographs appeared everywhere the next day. He had to take a breath and go, [ SOUND ] boy, stuff's gonna happen because of these pictures. These are not ordinary photographs from Iraq. This is not what people are used to seeing from that place. This is going to make people stop. They were the first set of images from Iraq that really showed something like that, that showed that personal cost of war in such a direct. [ MUSIC ] Horrific retching way. I think it's those kind of photographs, demand and command attention. And you as a journalist, as an editor, feel a duty to make sure that those photographs, live a big life as a work. That their seen and shared, and spoken about. The iconic image that came out of that shooting that Chris was able to capture was that little girl, Samar Hassan. We learned her name later. We learned that she was five years old. But that photograph, as anonymous as she is at that moment, I think everybody identifies her immediately. It's such a powerful beacon for all of the emotions I think someone has whether they believe in the power of photography or they believe in war, they don't believe in war. That moment transcends all that and just cuts to the pain that this child is feeling. Just that raw emotion surrounded by all this. Small, but so important story telling aspects. [ MUSIC ] Chris was an all- around photographer. He could do both the big things and the little things and he was very good at all of them. He wanted to do the big things, the wars, the conflicts. He was, a great journalist and a great photo journalist who wanted to cover the stories that mattered most. He was at that very top of the arc of his life professionally, and personally. I think one of the hardest things as we think about him And his photographs, yes the photographs that he's taken. 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