The image that speaks a thousand words about our inhumane migration debate | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
The birth of a baby boy on a dangerously overcrowded refugee boat should be a wake-up call to all of us
It has become something of a cliche to compare modern photographic compositions to Renaissance paintings, but that is what I thought of when I saw the image of the baby boy born on a crowded small boat that was rescued off the coast of Lanzarote this week. Granted, Renaissance painters were notoriously bad at babies, and with his wrinkled little face and his full head of hair, this baby is as real as it gets. But composition-wise, there is something in the twist of the torsos of all those exhausted people turning towards him and his mother, the arms outstretched, hands reaching. For a photo not taken by a professional, the effect is startling.
What had this new mother just gone through? To be in early labour in such circumstances, let alone the later stages, let alone delivery … once again, I’m left astonished by the sheer physical and emotional endurance of women.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist
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