Mosul, Iraq. The soldier moved towards the kid suddenly and unexpectedly. His hand reached for the kid's face. For a brief moment. I could not see the soldier's face - as not one inch of his skin was left uncovered by his full armor - but I felt he meant it with some kind of melancholic affection: like older people sometimes do to the young, with a mixture of worry about their future and desire to encourage them. In that instant, against the silence of the gutted city, I felt I could almost hear the noise of the herculean effort of growing up.
Antonio Denti is an award-winning news cameraman, in love with still photography. Born in Catania (Sicily) in 1972, he graduated as a social anthropologist at the University of London ( Goldsmiths' College and SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies - ) but became a cameraman. He has been working for Reuters since 1998. He covered conflict and change in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Tunisia, Catalonia, Vatican events from the death of Pope John Paul II to the election of Pope Francis, the great migration crisis on land and sea, the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia.
