If you thought that Emilio Morenatti would have had enough of the world’s hot spots after he lost his left foot in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan 15 months ago, then you’re not thinking like a photojournalist.
Mr. Morenatti has returned to the worst of it, covering the cholera epidemic in Haiti, which had killed more than 900 people by Sunday. His work is presented here along with pictures by Ramon Espinosa of The Associated Press, Andres Martinez Casares of the European Pressphoto Agency and Damon Winter of The New York Times.
They are the kind of intimate pictures that compel outsiders to confront a disaster that many would just as soon ignore; to see faces and bodies — instead of statistics. That is Mr. Morenatti’s stock in trade.
“Emilio was very keen to get back to work,” said Santiago Lyon, the director of photography at The A.P., to whom Mr. Morenatti reports. “He called a couple of weeks ago and asked if he could go to Haiti. He felt he was strong enough to make the trip.”
(Anyone able to take precautions — using only bottled, boiled or chemically treated water; washing hands often with soap and clean water; avoiding raw or undercooked meat and seafood — can be fairly sure that they will not contract cholera. “Casual contact with an infected person is not a risk for becoming ill,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The A.P. makes vaccinations with Dukoral available to its staff members, Mr. Lyon said.)
Since March, when Mr. Morenatti began working again, he has covered events in Spain and traveled to the World Cup competition. But this is the first time since the 2009 attack that he has been at the scene of such catastrophe.
“It’s a very important part of his reintegration into the work he’s so good at,” Mr. Lyon said.
Thinking also of Joao Silva, a contract photographer for The New York Times who was even more seriously wounded recently in Afghanistan, Mr. Lyon added, “Emilio demonstrates that even after a horrible injury, it is possible to return.”
