While at the World Press Photo Exhibition, it's hard for me to single out just ONE photo that affected me, because they ALL did, especially since as soon as you walk in, the first exhibit is the really hard ones to swallow. The ones that make you realize, oh my gawd what is happening around the world. In a sense they are the pictures that make you open your eyes to a world larger than what we’re living in right now
What the scene was like when I went to the exhibit at 3 p.m this Friday.
As you enter…this is what the description says which I took a picture of to remind me, but the words were SO true and accurate that I can remember them vividly. It makes an extremely good point, especially to us as journalists, that when a big black bold headline reads “66,000 PEOPLE DIE IN BUS BOMBING,” and people read it, are affected by it, then move on to the next story without complaining. HOWEVER, when a picture is shown of the exact same event – 66,000 people die in bus bombing – all of a sudden the editor is getting bombarded with calls: of people complaining! Complaining??? Actually complaining that this is offensive and not appropriate. So, where a picture can tell a thousand words, in some case the words seem to be easier to swallow for many narrow minded people who don’t want to look beyond their borders and face reality. Words sweep over you…a photo haunts you because it places you in that moment, in the event, and what’s worse is that you see the people affected by it staring back at you.
Which is why the World Press Photo Exhibit is always so hard to go to. I went to it my first year of j-skool without really knowing what to expect, but was left astonished and dumbfounded by these amazing pictures. So when we were assigned this, it was a pleasure to have to do this as an assignment.
It really is hard to explain how much these pictures affect you, because every person has a different interpretation of pictures. But seeing some of the war pictures with people lying dead, bloody limbs, children being operated on…to me it shows that for some reason these disgusting things continue to happen all over the world.
One of the first pictures that captured my eyes was this beautiful colourful one.
This to me, looks more like a painting, with lots of time spent on it with different palette of colours, rather than the quick second of the shutter. But that quick second captured something beautiful. The light, I think does wonders for this picture and to me it seemed almost “heavenly.” It’s a dark world, but there’s that single ray of light…signifying a ray of hope perhaps? I don’t know, that’s the thing about pictures, it’s left up to your interpretation.
There was a particular picture and caption which immediately struck my attention, and just made me chuckle to myself a little because it shows me that journalists do indeed make a huge impact in the world, and everything we’re learning in class is valid. It’s a picture taking by Jereoen Oerleman from the Netherlands, of a man holding a body of a dead baby in front of protesters, as he stands on a podium, and the caption reads …
“Paramedics hold up the dead body of a child before members of the press in the village of Qana. Both sides of the Lebanon conflict are accused of manipulating the media to their own ends. Allegations were made largely by bloggers over the internet that situations had been staged for the press for propaganda purpose.”
What I found fascinating was that the main source of media who had made these allegations were bloggers…not newspapers, or tv or anything like that. Again reinforcing how powerful of a tool the internet has become.
As I was going through the pictures, I heard a businesswoman sigh really loudly as she’s looking at a picture of a war-torn Iraq, just emphasizing even more the mood in this particular section, and how everyone was feeling.
Another picture that really caught my eye and I couldn’t stop staring at (and I’m sorry that I don’t have it to show you, but my camera died within 2 minutes of me being at the exhibition –oh the irony!) It was of a man, with a blood streaked down his face, tied with two different types of rope to a brown, rusty wooden pole in the streets of Mexico. He had a sign on him that reads in Spanish, “Because I’m A Rat.” I actually had to take a deep breath after seeing this picture. He was tied to the pole after being accused by anti-government activists and being apprehended.
As I saw these pictures, the thought that went through my head was “how can people actually do this to each other.” Are these really humans doing this to one another?
The pictures are extremely powerful. I did go to the other sections, the sports, and the animals, but after seeing such shocking pictures, everything else just seems a little indifferent (not that they weren’t still amazing!).
There was a particular picture and caption which immediately struck my attention, and just made me chuckle to myself a little because it shows me that journalists do indeed make a huge impact in the world, and everything we’re learning in class is valid. It’s a picture taking by Jereoen Oerleman from the Netherlands, of a man holding a body of a dead baby in front of protesters, as he stands on a podium, and the caption reads …
“Paramedics hold up the dead body of a child before members of the press in the village of Qana. Both sides of the Lebanon conflict are accused of manipulating the media to their own ends. Allegations were made largely by bloggers over the internet that situations had been staged for the press for propaganda purpose.”
What I found fascinating was that the main source of media who had made these allegations were bloggers…not newspapers, or tv or anything like that. Again reinforcing how powerful of a tool the internet has become.
As I was going through the pictures, I heard a businesswoman sigh really loudly as she’s looking at a picture of a war-torn Iraq, just emphasizing even more the mood in this particular section, and how everyone was feeling.
Another picture that really caught my eye and I couldn’t stop staring at (and I’m sorry that I don’t have it to show you, but my camera died within 2 minutes of me being at the exhibition –oh the irony!) It was of a man, with a blood streaked down his face, tied with two different types of rope to a brown, rusty wooden pole in the streets of Mexico. He had a sign on him that reads in Spanish, “Because I’m A Rat.” I actually had to take a deep breath after seeing this picture. He was tied to the pole after being accused by anti-government activists and being apprehended.
As I saw these pictures, the thought that went through my head was “how can people actually do this to each other.” Are these really humans doing this to one another?
The pictures are extremely powerful. I did go to the other sections, the sports, and the animals, but after seeing such shocking pictures, everything else just seems a little indifferent (not that they weren’t still amazing!).
The Picture Tells It Better:
What struck me about this particular photo was that it said more about her feelings than any words could ever portray. Seeing her is better than reading about her. You wouldn't fully understand the pain that is so evidently splashed across her face.
I'm sorry that you can't see it very well, but this stand was set up in the middle of the exhibition where visitors could voice their opinion on the photographs. There were comments such as "Wow," and "Incredible. I can't believe this is still happening. You touched me."
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