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War in Iraq: Through the Lens of David Turnley

Aired April 02, 2003 - 14:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Innocent faces, frightened faces. Explosions, damage, soldiers, civilians -- all the images of war. Stirring images captured by photographers such as David Turnley. Here now we want to share with you a look at how he sees the faces of war, his photos described in his own word.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID TURNLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER (voice-over): I'm David Turnley. I'm here in a town called Peasley (ph), in the eastern flank of the northern front in northern Iraq.

I'm trying to document the pathos, the emotions, the way the people cope in the middle of what is a very anxious situation.

This was particularly illustrated in this small town today. My day in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) started as I drove into town photographing refugees who were fleeing the attack of an Iraqi front line position just a couple of hundred meters away. There were mortar attacks on the town of Peasley, several people killed and injured.

One of the people that was unfortunately randomly hit today was this young man, a schoolteacher, who is 26, who was killed. We were taken to the home of the family of this young man. It was a kind of wake. The groans (ph) of the men and women seemed to be very distinct. The men, many of whom themselves were in a very deep form kind of grieving went about the very serious task and the very deliberate and dignified task of washing and preparing this man's body for burial.

The women, on the other hand, were congregated together, whether they be young girls or whether they be adult women. And they were involved with a kind of collective catharsis of emotion, which they were screaming and wailing and flagilating themselves by beating themselves on their chest, sometimes their faces. It almost seemed as if they were in the midst of grieving, trying to hurt themselves. Oftentimes, they would look to the sky. They seemed to be appealing to a greater power. Sometimes they would evoke the name of Saddam Hussein with a great deal of rage in their voices.

Today was clearly a reaction to the Kurdish people in this community being very much caught in the middle of this war. After they had prepared the body they brought it into the living room, laid it on a sheet, wrapped it with a blanket, and then immediately put the body into a wooden coffin, carried it outside, put it in the back of a truck and drove straight to the cemetery to bury this young man. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Powerful pictures from photographer David Turnley. Wolf, the images of grief. That's an emotion all of us can understand.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And, Judy, all too often, words simply fail to capture the horrors of war. And sometimes they reflect the heartbreak with gut wrenching accuracy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 2, 2003 - 14:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Innocent faces, frightened faces. Explosions, damage, soldiers, civilians -- all the images of war. Stirring images captured by photographers such as David Turnley. Here now we want to share with you a look at how he sees the faces of war, his photos described in his own word.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID TURNLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER (voice-over): I'm David Turnley. I'm here in a town called Peasley (ph), in the eastern flank of the northern front in northern Iraq.

I'm trying to document the pathos, the emotions, the way the people cope in the middle of what is a very anxious situation.

This was particularly illustrated in this small town today. My day in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) started as I drove into town photographing refugees who were fleeing the attack of an Iraqi front line position just a couple of hundred meters away. There were mortar attacks on the town of Peasley, several people killed and injured.

One of the people that was unfortunately randomly hit today was this young man, a schoolteacher, who is 26, who was killed. We were taken to the home of the family of this young man. It was a kind of wake. The groans (ph) of the men and women seemed to be very distinct. The men, many of whom themselves were in a very deep form kind of grieving went about the very serious task and the very deliberate and dignified task of washing and preparing this man's body for burial.

The women, on the other hand, were congregated together, whether they be young girls or whether they be adult women. And they were involved with a kind of collective catharsis of emotion, which they were screaming and wailing and flagilating themselves by beating themselves on their chest, sometimes their faces. It almost seemed as if they were in the midst of grieving, trying to hurt themselves. Oftentimes, they would look to the sky. They seemed to be appealing to a greater power. Sometimes they would evoke the name of Saddam Hussein with a great deal of rage in their voices.

Today was clearly a reaction to the Kurdish people in this community being very much caught in the middle of this war. After they had prepared the body they brought it into the living room, laid it on a sheet, wrapped it with a blanket, and then immediately put the body into a wooden coffin, carried it outside, put it in the back of a truck and drove straight to the cemetery to bury this young man. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Powerful pictures from photographer David Turnley. Wolf, the images of grief. That's an emotion all of us can understand.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And, Judy, all too often, words simply fail to capture the horrors of war. And sometimes they reflect the heartbreak with gut wrenching accuracy.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com