美国国家公共电台 NPR 'It Was Hard To Take These Pictures, Knowing What Was Coming Next'

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Sometimes, there's an image that breaks through and captures the essence of a story that we've all been hearing about. This past week, award-winning photographer John Moore from Getty Images photographed a 2-year-old Honduran girl at the U.S.-Mexico border. It's taken from her vantage point. The adults are looming¹ over her in the dark out of frame, and she's crying as her mother is searched. The image went viral. And to talk about what he saw on the border this past week, we're joined by John Moore. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

JOHN MOORE: It's very good to talk with you, Lulu.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So, John, tell us the story of this little girl.

MOORE: Well, I had been photographing the Border Patrol that evening. It was in the Rio Grande Valley. It was a moonless night. We came across a group of undocumented immigrants, mostly families, women and children. And I could see the fear on their faces, in their eyes. As the Border Patrol took people's names down, I could see a mother holding a young child. And when it came time for that mother and the 2-year-old daughter to be searched before transportation to the processing center, they asked the mother to set down her daughter. At that moment, the young child broke into tears, and she started wailing². And I took a knee and had very few frames of that moment before it was over. And she picked up her daughter, and they were rushed into the van and all taken away.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You speak Spanish. You've been covering the border for a long time. Were you able to talk to this mother and child? And what was their story?

MOORE: I was only able to speak with them very briefly³. I did ask the mother - I said, where are you from? And she said, we're from Honduras. And I said, well, how long have you been traveling to get to this place right now? And she looked at me and said, we've been on the road for a month. And I knew at that moment that this point in their journey, which was very emotional for me to see them being detained, for them was just part of a very, very long journey.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You're an award-winning photographer, and you've covered war and chaos⁴. And I should mention that we're friends because we often covered the same things in the Middle East and Latin America. And you've been taking pictures at the border for the last decade. What did you see this past week more broadly?

MOORE: Having covered this story for the last 10 years, I've seen a lot along the way. But in this case, this last week, it was different because I knew that what happened after these pictures were taken was going to be something very different. Most of us here had heard the news that the administration had planned to separate families. And these people really had no idea about this news. And it was hard to take these pictures, knowing what was coming next.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. This took a toll⁵ on you. You spoke⁶ about that in the Getty Images blog.

MOORE: As a photojournalist, it's my role to keep going, even when it's hard. But as a father - and I have a toddler myself. It was very difficult to see what was happening in front of my lens and thinking what it would be like for my kids to be separated from me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What did the Border Patrol say about this new policy? I mean, you spend a lot of time with them.

MOORE: I think with Border Patrol agents, it's all on an individual basis. Some of them are very supportive of President Trump⁷'s policies and others probably a little bit less so. And I think it's important to note that the laws have not changed since President Trump came into office. It's really the administration's policies that have changed. In the past, most families who sought political asylum⁸ would be processed and then released, pending⁹ a court date in the future. And, of course, that policy has changed in recent months, and we're seeing the results of that now.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I must ask you - even though you only had very brief contact, do you know what happened to that little Honduran girl and her mother?

MOORE: I do not know what happened to them. I would very much like to know. Ever since I took those pictures, I think about that moment often. And it's emotional for me every time.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: John Moore, photographer for Getty. His new book is called "Undocumented," pictures from the border that span the last decade. Thank you so much.

MOORE: Thank you, Lulu.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And if you'd like to see that photo and others John took at the border, you can go to my Twitter account, @lourdesgnavarro. Or follow John on Instagram at @jbmoorephoto.

1 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

2 wailing   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱

参考例句：

• A police car raced past with its siren wailing. 一辆警车鸣着警报器飞驰而过。
• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。

3 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

8 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

9 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。