MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – The Boston Globe photographer, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize earlier today, and who was at the finish line when the fatal twin blasts went off at the 2013 Boston Marathon, told RIA Novosti he was awaiting this year’s commemoration events to end so people could move on with their lives.
As the United States is preparing to mark the one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and mutilated well over two hundred, John Tlumacki, a staff photographer with The Boston Globe, said he was still recovering from the gruesome terror attack that shocked Boston last April 15.
“There is so much anticipation about the upcoming anniversary that I can’t wait until the event is over. And people also want to get on with their lives at this point. Although it will be good for the victims and survivors to be at the marathon this year, people want to move on and put that in the past,” he said.
“There was blood all over the sidewalk. Pools of blood at this point. People were lying on the ground, some with their legs off, dead bodies, bloody faces … I just remember how horrific it was when people were smoldering, catching on fire and bleeding,” Tlumacki said.
Boston is planning to hold another marathon this year, on April 21. Tlumacki said it would be a special and emotional event for him because he was planning to photograph it from exactly the same spot as a year ago. For him, the scene of the April 15 bombing is a sacred place.
“I am nervous. I know when I am there I will be emotional. When I go back there, I still have all those images in my head of where everybody was when the bomb went off, of people like Celeste Corcoran who lost both her legs. It’s a sacred place to me. It’s a special place. This year it will be closure for me covering the races.”
John Tlumacki was standing right on the yellow tape of the finish line when the first pressure-cooker bomb went off, exploding some 45 feet away to his right. He rushed towards the epicenter, not knowing the cause of the explosion. A runner, Bill Iffring, fell on the ground in front of him as the second blast erupted.
“Three police officers started running and I took my first photos. They went by me into the crowd, and then I ran forward to the sidewalk. It was so smoky, and I just started taking some photos. And as the smoke cleared, it was obvious that there was a tremendous amount of injured people,” he said.
The sidewalk was covered in blood, with injured people scattered all around. They were already being helped by onlookers and first responders. Tlumacki said he was devastated, shocked and angered at the same time by this horrid scene. He said he had run forward instinctively, as would any news photographer.
“I did not know it was a bomb. Then, I think I was a little scared but I was angry thinking if it was a bomb what kind of damage it would do to people. I did not see any other photographers around. And when I got to the scene, I knew something terrible had happened and I needed to take photos for the world to see. It was such a terrible thing. My eyes were teary and I was angry at the same time while taking pictures,” he confessed.
John Tlumacki said he still has the photos and looks through them to remind himself of that day.
“I still need to see the reality of that day. It helps me in the healing process to know that those people are okay. Most of them are walking now. Celeste Corcoran, whom I photographed, is walking very well now and is happy to survive.”
The photographer said he had become friends with Boston runner Celeste Corcoran and her daughter Sydney and has been keeping track of her recovery ever since. He also met Nicole Gross, another survivor who was captured in a shocking photo trying to stand up while covered in blood.
“It’s a special bond that we have, because we were all there. We have been through a lot of things mentally, and I think we kind of help each other,” Tlumacki told RIA Novosti.
The Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki was amongst the team awarded the 2014 Pulitzer prize for breaking new reporting
