12-year-old war-wounded boy recovering in hospital: Alessio Mamo’s best photo | Art and design

Wwhen I started taking pictures about 18 years ago, I was very interested in beauty. Then there was a moment when I realized the power of the camera as a tool. On 3 October 2013 there was a large shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 250 people from Eritrea lost their lives. I was sent to report on the event, and during that work I felt that I was fond of telling stories about people’s injustice, about people’s lives after the war.

At first I mainly worked on issues related to refugees in Sicily, where I come from, but after a few years I had the opportunity to go to the Middle East with a friend, a journalist. Marta Bellingreriwho is an expert in this area. He was living in Jordan and I stayed with him there for six months. This is how our project works, All War Hospitalabout patients at the Médecins Sans Frontières Al-Mowasah hospital in Amman, he began.

Al-Mowasah Hospital serves patients from all over the country: IraqGaza, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon. They agreed to let us stay there for a few months; we visited three times a week. We knew we needed time to tell these people’s stories, to talk to patients, their families, doctors and nurses. We knew Manal from the time we went to the hospital: she and her mother already knew about our work. We decided to ask him if he was happy for us to photograph him.

She is a beautiful, wonderful girl. He was 12 years old at the time. He suffered severe burns on his hands and face after a shelling in Kirkuk, Iraq. He underwent major surgery and had to wear the mask you see in the picture for about five hours a day, to protect his face from the sun. You can also see in the room around him the drawings he made, his balloon in his hand. Manal had many friends in the hospital, and loved to tell stories, and participate in many activities organized for children there.

Like many patients, he was receiving treatment for a long time and spent several months in the hospital. But in many ways she seemed like a normal girl to me. We had a great bond with him and his mother, and shooting was like a game with Manal. His mother gave us Iraqi sweets and biscuits. The image was generated randomly. It won an award at World Press Photography Award 2018.

I am very grateful to Manal and I am still in touch with her and her family – last year I went to visit her in Kirkuk, where she lives with her uncle. He is 19 years old now.

This image has a strong impact on me as even today, years after my work at the MSF hospital in Amman, children are still among the worst victims of conflict. Today more than ever, having just given birth, I feel that the suffering of children in conflict zones is very important. This is why I will soon be going to Beirut with the Guardian to work with children injured by the ongoing war. Many people have been injured in recent months in Israeli attacks.

Yes, this is a story that is difficult to capture. I get very angry when I see children suffering. I try to follow what I see, and the anger I feel, in my work, and I try to do everything I can in the hope that these stories can inform as many readers as possible.

It is important to continue to tell these stories because if we stop and let them go unheard, we will live in a country where no one cares about the suffering of the poor. And that is not the world I want my daughter to grow up in. My hope is that my work, along with many journalists covering similar issues, can plant small seeds and open small windows of awareness – seeds that may one day take root and build critical mass.

Alessio Mamo’s CV

Born: Catania, Sicily, 1976
Above: Winning two World Press Photo awards. First up in 2018 is this picture of little Manal.
Top tips: Give yourself five years before you quit!