On January 12, 2010 a catastrophic earthquake hit the small island of Haiti. The effects were astronomical, damage and death were exponential, and the entire country was down. Overall, this event goes down in Haitian history as a terrible experience for all. Journalists from all over the world reported the earthquake. One of which was Matthew McDermott. McDermott was present when two children were being rescued from a plethora of rubble, which had trapped the children in darkness for four days. McDermott captured an amazing image that displays one child, Kiki, and his rescue. The photo shows Kiki's ultimate happiness for finally seeing the light of day and being reunited with his mother. The picture has Kiki in the center with his outstretched arms as workers pulled him from the rubble and into his mother's arms. Around Kiki, are more workers with smiles and open arms signifying their happiness with the rescue's success. Aside from solely Kiki's happiness, this photograph ultimately emphasizes the theme of people helping people because it shows the overall rescue effort and joyful emotions during a time where joy happiness was a rarity. 

To say the rescue effort was difficult would be an understatement. Kiki and the other child were buried under the debris of a 3-story grocery store. In an article published by the New York Post, McDermott explains, "Some workers used saws and jackhammers; others moved buckets full of debris off the mound of wreckage." Throughout the photograph, you can see the immense amounts of dust on all of the worker's clothing, work tools, and debris, all of which indicate the measures that had to be taken to retrieve the two children. The concept of people helping people is emphasized here because the great workload was for two children that nobody knew. We tend to be a secluded society as we only directly help ourselves or and family and indirectly help people we don't know through anonymous donations. Here, we see workers from near and far coming to directly help two children and their mother that in no way are associated with the workers. 

Emotional expression is most common when we share it are among people we know. We express our happiness when we have succeeded and our sadness when things don't play out in our favor. No matter the feeling, we feel the same emotion together when experiencing a common situation. The photograph encompasses a variety of people; all of who don't know each other, yet with a collective feeling- this is utter joy. The main focus of the photo shows Kiki, with an iconic grin from ear to ear and arms wide open expressing his joy to be alive and out of the darkness. McDermott says, "Kiki's smile will live with me forever" as it really did express how happy he was with being alive.  However, there are more people present than just Kiki. Pan over to the worker on the upper left. This man is tall, with outstretched arms just like Kiki. The worker and Kiki have never met before; yet have the exact same emotional reaction to the success of the rescue mission. The workers wouldn't be affected if Kiki hadn't been rescued from the rubble. They would continue with their normal lives and think nothing of it. However, this group of workers came together to save this young boy and all were as ecstatic as Kiki when he was brought out. The emotional aspects present in the photograph suggest that coming together as a community isn't solely about work effort in a rescue mission. The emotional expression connects everyone, from little Kiki to the random worker camouflaged in the back; they are all joyous and thankful for Kiki being saved. The happy emotion can also be considered as a silver lining to the terrible event. With a simple search on Google, you can see that the earthquake in Haiti was in no means an event that would spark a bit of happiness. Over 230,000 people were killed along with the destruction of homes, schools, and work places. Yet despite all of the sadness and utter despair the Haitians were experiencing, McDermott managed to photograph the silver lining to it all. With the connection of these random workers, a young boy was reunited with his family and just for a moment, everyone was happy. 

This photograph has more to show than what appears to the eye. At an initial glance, the photograph focuses on the rescuing of a little boy. However, by looking past the center, the viewer can see that the photograph is comprised of fellow workers all as happy as Kiki.   By looking at the success in lending a helping hand to a stranger, we feel the sense of community among humans. This is a rare thing to see as we tend to think of community as a joining of people with a commonality whether it is race, religion, etc. The photo suggests that we, with the common trait of simply being human, should lend out a physical helping hand to everyone. One can only hope that our communal gathering could bring the happiness Kiki and the workers felt that January night. 
