Wire report

A 12-year-old casualty of war recovers in hospital: Alessio Mamo’s best photograph

‘Manal suffered severe burns to her arms and face after a missile explosion in Iraq. Yet in many ways she seemed just like a regular young girl’ When I started to take photographs about 18 years ago, I was more interested in the aesthetics. Then came a moment when I realised the power of the camera as a tool. On 3 October 2013 there was a huge shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 250 migrants from Eritrea lost their lives. I was sent to cover the event, and it was during that assignment that I understood I was interested in telling stories about social injustice, about people’s lives post-conflict. At first I worked mostly on stories about refugees in Sicily, where I am from, but a few years later I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with a friend, the journalist Marta Bellingreri , who is an expert on the region. She was living in Jordan and I joined her there f

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‘Manal suffered severe burns to her arms and face after a missile explosion in Iraq. Yet in many ways she seemed just like a regular young girl’ When I started to take photographs about 18 years ago, I was more interested in the aesthetics. Then came a moment when I realised the power of the camera as a tool. On 3 October 2013 there was a huge shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 250 migrants from Eritrea lost their lives. I was sent to cover the event, and it was during that assignment that I understood I was interested in telling stories about social injustice, about people’s lives post-conflict. At first I worked mostly on stories about refugees in Sicily, where I am from, but a few years later I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with a friend, the journalist Marta Bellingreri , who is an expert on the region. She was living in Jordan and I joined her there f

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According to The Guardian’s linked report, A 12-year-old casualty of war recovers in hospital: Alessio Mamo’s best photograph, ‘Manal suffered severe burns to her arms and face after a missile explosion in Iraq. Yet in many ways she seemed just like a regular young girl’ When I started to take photographs about 18 years ago, I was more interested in the aesthetics. Then came a moment when I realised the power of the camera as a tool. On 3 October 2013 there was a huge shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 250 migrants from Eritrea lost their lives. I was sent to cover the event, and it was during that assignment that I understood I was interested in telling stories about social injustice, about people’s lives post-conflict. At first I worked mostly on stories about refugees in Sicily, where I am from, but a few years later I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with a friend, the journalist Marta Bellingreri , who is an expert on the region. She was living in Jordan and I joined her there f

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The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-07-22T14:48:38+00:00.

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Primary source: A 12-year-old casualty of war recovers in hospital: Alessio Mamo’s best photograph via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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