We attended a photo exhibition put on by the Cairo Image Collective. The exhibit was the “World Press Photo 2007” Awards. The photos were submitted by professional photo journalists from around the world.
Many of the photos were artistically beautiful.
Many were disturbing and painful to look at.
Many were technical marvels. (All hail photoshop!).
There were several photos of war scenes that will take a long time to fade from my memory.
The winning photo was this one:
(Image: Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images, World Press Photo of the Year)
It is a photo of Beirut residents driving through a bombed neighborhood of southern Beirut. [ I am not sure I agree with the judges, given the photos I saw. But…]
It can be interpreted many ways, I guess. Perhaps as a bunch of rich kids in their expensive convertible with their D&G sunglasses, manicured fingernails, and expensive mobile phones.
Perhaps as people looking for missing friends, or checking on their homes to see if anything was salvageable.
But it is a photograph of contrasts and the reality on the ground. At least some small part of someone’s reality, anyway.
One of the more intriguing details, to me, of the photo [which is sadly not visible in this shot, but is visible in the large photo on display in the exhibit] is the reflection in the sunglasses of the woman in the white shirt sitting in front.
The reflection shows a man walking away from the car, shoulders slumped and head hung low.