From The New York Times Lens Blog: Zayed Al-Qaws is 18 years old, an aspiring doctor who drives a taxi to pay for school. He lives with his family a short distance from Change Square in Sana, Yemen.
But when Samuel Aranda’s World Press Photo of the Year was published in The New York Times last October, no one knew Qaws’s name — or the name of his mother, Fatima. Aranda, who was on assignment for The Times, captured her clutching her son in a field hospital on Oct. 15. With the World Press decision, the two became the anonymous — and somewhat controversial — representatives of the Arab Spring.
Last Thursday night, Aranda returned to Yemen to cover Tuesday’s presidential election, which ends the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. But first, he had another task on his plate. He wanted to meet with the subjects of the photograph, to put a face on the image that gained so much attention after the award was announced on February 10.