The young girl died just hours after the infamous heartbreaking image was taken
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The photographer behind the tragic image of a young girl trapped in a volcanic mudflow shared the ‘heartbreaking question’ she asked him.
In 1985, Frank Fournier travelled to Columbia where the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz had caused huge disruption to the local community. Among the 29,000 residents in the town of Armero, around 20,000 were killed.
Many survived the initial eruption but were caught in the mudslide or trapped in debris. The photographer met a farmer who took him to the young girl ‘who needed help’.
“He took me to her, she was almost on her own at the time, just a few people around and some rescuers helping someone else a bit further away,” he explained to the BBC two decades later.
Fournier’s image of the girl is particularly haunting as her tired, black eyes have become synonymous with the tragedy.
