The second image I chose, was taken by Gilles Peress in Derry, Northern Ireland, January 30, 1972. The black and white photograph is a scene of death the man on the floor lays in a pool of his won blood. A priest steps forward with one hand on his head while people look in another direction implying that what ever they were looking at was a lot worse than what was on the floor in front of them.

 I’m trying to remember my emotions–I know that at one point I was shooting and crying at the same time. I think it must’ve been when I saw Barney McGuigan dead. 

By the time I had reached him, people were still huddling by the telephone box, protecting themselves from the shooting. He was alone. Then a priest [Father Tom O'Hara] arrived and started to give him the Last Rites. I remember taking a few pictures then. I remember I was crying as I was doing it. I remember that I didn’t want to intrude too much, but that at the same time I felt this obligation to shoot, to document. It is always the same f***ed-up situation: you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t….

This was the first time I saw what a real war weapon can do. I mean the destruction, the impact of it. Up until then, I thought that bullets killed you but they would kill you kind of neatly. You understand what I’m saying? This was the first time I realized the terrible destruction that those things create.

Gilles Peress interview with Trisha Ziff in Hidden Truths: Bloody Sunday 1972 (Santa Monica, CA: Smart Art Press, 1998), pp. 72-74.

Gilles Peress was worked for magnum photo agency at the time this photo was taken.