When New York Times photojournalist Lynsey Addario picked up her camera on the morning of March 6, she had no idea she was about to take a defining image of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Warning: This story contains graphic images that may be confronting for some readers.
"I assumed that I was going that morning to photograph the evacuation of civilians from Irpin," she told the ABC News Daily podcast.
But instead, the photo she took has become an iconic image of the war and potential evidence of war crimes against civilians.
One of the images where the faces of some of the victims are clearly visible was published on the front page of the New York Times -- unblurred.
"The New York Times made the amazing decision to publish the image on their website at first, sort of at the bottom of the home page," Addario said.
"And then the images eventually ended up on the top of their home page, very prominently displayed. It was an image of the victims with their faces visible, the sort of image I wanted published because I felt it was the strongest depiction of what had happened."
A safe passage under siege
When she took the photograph, the veteran war photographer and her team from The New York Times were stationed at a bridge connecting the north-western suburb of Irpin to the city of Kyiv.
It was being used as an evacuation path for hundreds of fleeing citizens as the Russian forces encroached further south. The bridge had been damaged by the Ukrainian forces who had blown it up to slow the Russian forces.
"My guard was up and I was anticipating that anything could happen," Addario recalled of the moment she arrived there.
"But I assumed that [it was] a very known and well-documented place, and that… there might not be an attack directly on that [evacuation] corridor."
But soon the back-and-forth of gunfire that had been hundreds of metres away closed in.
"Each time the Russians fired, it got closer and closer to where we were standing and closer and closer to that known evacuation corridor, " Addario said.
Then came an explosion, as Russian mortar shells sprayed the Kyiv side of the bridge, just 10 metres from where Addario and her team were taking shelter.
"There was an incredible amount of chaos. We were trying to figure out whether we were injured. I had gravel sprayed all over my neck. I wasn't sure if it was shrapnel," Addario told the ABC News Daily podcast.
"And then eventually the security guard ran across the street and started calling for a medic."
The photo
Moments after the explosion, Addario ran across the road with her camera to see four people – a mother, her two children and a church worker – motionless on the ground.
"One was a child that seemed to be the age of my 10-year-old son wearing a little puffy coat, a backpack still on his or her back.
"They appeared to be dead."
She began taking photographs, as respectfully as she could.
"I knew that I had taken an image that was very important in the context of the war. But I also knew that it might be an uphill battle to actually get them published, " she said
Still in the danger of a firing zone, Addario and her team pulled out and ran alongside other civilians, forced to dive for cover from shelling twice more.
"I think it's a war crime if you target a civilian intentionally, particularly because I watched them bracket artillery onto a civilian path rather than away from it. But that's for someone else to decide," she said
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied his forces are targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Can a photo prove a war crime?
War crimes — including the intentional killing of civilians — are laid out in treaties as part of the Geneva Convention and can be prosecuted in a number of courts, including the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to ambassador Todd Buchwald, the former head of the US State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice during the Obama administration, photographs like Addario's taken in conflicts are crucial pieces of evidence in the prosecution of war crimes.
"The picture itself is important, but there's other things that need to be established," he told the ABC New Daily podcast.
"The intent of the attacker, whether they were acting under orders, [if] it was by accident."
He says there is plenty of other evidence that war crimes are being committed.
"This is an amazingly bracing picture, an amazing photo but it's not the only thing that we've seen," he said, pointing to an overall pattern of attacks.
Mr Buchwald said a number of official bodies were already working to collate more evidence.
"The Ukrainians themselves have an office of public prosecutors who has set up a war crimes directorate. There are civil society organisations on the ground… other international organisations are collecting information as well, with a view to provide this information to a prosecutor before a trial," he said.
The ICC has already started a formal investigation of Russian war crimes, after more than 40 countries, including Australia, grouped together to refer the matter to the court.
The United States does not formally recognise the ICC, but US President Joe Biden has branded Vladimir Putin a "war criminal."
But what is the likelihood of ever getting offenders into a courtroom?
Mr Buchwald thinks it is not impossible.
"It may not seem to people like the most likely thing that would happen now, but I have in my experience seen cases that fell into place," he said.
But he said until that point the investigation of war crimes serves as a strong deterrent in itself.
"It puts pressure on these people. It helps deter would-be perpetrators and hopefully help the situation even if there is not a formal prosecution later on," he said.
"People who think that they might get prosecuted tend to be less willing to indulge in this kind of activity."
And on whether Mr Putin or his top generals will ever face justice, Mr Buchwald cannot say.
"Who knows, but the world changes, things change and I think it is important to hold on to the idea that even if there is never actually a prosecution that the act of pursuing justice is a benefit in and of itself," he said.
Publishing the reality of war
In the weeks since Lynsey Addario took this photograph, countless others depicting the horrors unfolding in Ukraine have been published.
But she believes this photo has cut through, not least because of the New York Times' decision to publish it uncensored on their website.
After the story and photo were published, the New York Times spoke to the father and husband of the children and woman shown in the photo. He had been away caring for his sick mother in eastern Ukraine when the attack took place.
Addario said the New York Times journalist Andrew Kramer asked him whether he would have given permission for the photograph to be taken.
"And he said yes, this is a war crime and it needed to be documented and people needed to see this," she said.
"And so, you know, that was a very emotional moment for me as a photographer, but also as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, because I thought it was very brave of him."
