‘My eyes were full of tears’: shooting the defining image of the Turkey earthquake

Adem Altan came across a father holding his dead daughter’s hand – who asked him to take her photo

Mesut Hançer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak. Picture: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

Adem Altan can’t compare the picture he took on a cold morning this week with any of the tens of thousands he has shot in his 41 years as a photojournalist.

Shortly after driving from Ankara to the southern Turkish town of Kahramanmaraş on Tuesday, and picking his way through the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, he came across a collapsed apartment complex.