Ron Haeberle
[Photographer, b. 1941, Cleveland, Ohio, lives in Cleveland.]
I happened upon a group of GIs surrounding these people and one of the American GIs yelled out, “Hey he’s got a camera.” So they kind of all dispersed just a little bit, and I came upon them and looking at the photograph I noticed the one girl was kind of frantic and an older woman trying to protect this small child and the older woman in front was just, you know, kind of pleading, trying to, beg, you know, begging and that and another person, a woman was buttoning her blouse and holding a small baby. Okay, I took the photograph, I thought they were just going to question the people, but just as soon as I turned and walked away, I heard firing, I looked around and over the corner of my shoulder I saw the people drop. I just kept on walking.
(On photographing the My Lai massacre, Vietnam, March, 1968.)