1986 Photo Contest, Spot News, 3rd prize
Photographer

Jorge Eliecer Parga Salcedo

Sipa Press / El Tiempo

16 November, 1985

Original caption from World Press Photo (1986)

Guillermo Cardozo is rescued, after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted on 13 November 1985, wiping Armero off the map and killing 23,000 people. Spotted from a helicopter by a reporter, the exhausted boy was pulled out of the mud. Jorge Eliecer Parga Salcedo: 'I arrived in Armero 58 hours after the disaster, at a time that hope of finding and rescuing survivors had all but evaporated. I persuaded the pilot of a rescue helicopter to take me with him, and we could not believe our eyes when we found this boy alive. I never tire of thanking God for saving him.' (World Press Photo retrospective Children's Jury exhibition, 2003).

 


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More information
Through a Glass Darkly, by Robert Godden, published on Witness in September 2017
How should vulnerable children be represented in the media? Are we guilty of applying different ethical standards dependent on the race, ethnicity, nationality, location, gender or class of the child? Robert Godden explores these questions and provides guidelines for photojournalists and organizations. 

About the photographer

Jorge Eliecer Parga Salcedo

Jorge Eliecer Parga Salcedo was born in Ibagué, Colombia, in 1940. He finished his journalism studies in 1977. After working for a few years for La Republica he joined El Tiempo,...

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