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IT SPARKED HEATED debate in several newsrooms, caused one veteran newspaper editor to cry, and, for most photo editors, became the focal front-page shot of the tragic April 19 bombing in Oklahoma City.
"It was the photo that was felt around the world," said Tommy Almon, the baby's grandfather.
President Bill Clinton even mentioned it in a televised address. Ironically, however, the dramatic photo of firefighter Chris Fields cradling the badly burned body of infant Baylee Almon in his arms -- which landed on numerous front pages the next day -- was shot by a local amateur, developed at a one-hour photo shop, and nearly missed being distributed by the Associated Press.
Charles H. Porter IV, a 25-year-old Oklahoma City bank clerk, shot the picture of Fields holding the child, just moments after the bomb blast occurred.
He then sold the photo to AP state photo editor David Longstreath, who sent it over the wires.
"It was everything that was indicative of the bombing," said Longstreath. "It was one of those rare shots that gives the entire story, but in a way that words cannot."
Once Porter took the picture, and developed it with other bomb blast photos, he still had nowhere to publish it. He initially took the shot to Dan Smith, a photographer at the University of Central Oklahoma, who knew Longstreath.
Longstreath said Smith called him and sent the photo over to AP to be considered. But, in the chaos that followed the explosion, Longstreath almost ignored the shot.
"My initial reaction when he sent it was that I was...