Images from Haiti bring home the magnitude of the destruction

As I sat at work tonight, laying out newspaper pages that included the latest on the Haitian earthquake rescue and aid efforts, I had occasion to see many of the images that were moving on the Canadian and Associated Press wire services.

If you’ve been watching coverage on the news — CNN in particular has been lauded for its coverage — then you’ll have seen loads of images already. But there’s something more arresting about a carefully chosen photograph. A still picture forces you to imagine the “before” and “after” in a way that video, for all its advantages, cannot. That, in my opinion, can really add to the emotion and empathy that comes through in a photo.

There are tons of “news roundup” sites, and just about every major newspaper has a photo blog these days, so there’s no shortage of quality and compelling coverage. But for my money, it’d be tough to beat the work coming out of the Los Angeles Times.

Take a look at their high-res gallery here.

Among all the well-shot photos (some which are kind of graphic, fair warning), I found myself somewhat surprised that the image that most affected me didn’t have an obvious hook for my empathy. The burning bodies, the crying people, the frightened refuges and the hungry looters all touched me. But it was this image of a ruined cathedral that stopped me in my scrolling.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

I guess amongst all the frantic scenes of human chaos, this picture really showed me the permanence of the destruction.

I’m not the only one to have noticed. On the Huffington Post, they have before-and-after images.

(Thanks to my friend and coworker Tim for sending the LA Times link along to me.)