World Press Photo is an
independent, Dutch, non-profit organisation that holds an annual competition to
choose the best photographs taken from around the world by photo-journalists.
Following selection of the winning images the exhibition tours the world,
bringing the winning and short-listed entries to 45 countries. Over 100,000
photographs from over 5,000 photographers in 124 countries were submitted for
the 2013 competition, making this one of the largest photographic competitions
in the world.
More than 160 of the short-listed
and winning entries were exhibited this year on level 2 of the Southbank
Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Unfortunately our visit coincided with a jazz
concert and the hall was extremely busy, as was the area adjacent to the
display boards, which were sited on two sides of the hall. As a consequence I
found it quite difficult to get close enough to the photographs to read the
captions or see fine detail: next year I must try to visit at a much quieter time!
Nevertheless, I felt that the exhibition could have benefited from having more
space: perhaps the National Theatre would have been a more appropriate venue,
although some of the photographs are quite harrowing and may not be suitable
for young viewers (although there seemed to be no age restrictions at the Royal
Festival Hall in what was a free, open access exhibition).
There are several categories of
entry, including sport (the 2012 London Olympic Games were covered), nature and
portraits (staged and observed), but despite the impressive coverage of these
areas the greatest interest was, inevitably, reserved for coverage of the
world’s trouble spots, with the conflicts in Syria, Israel and the Palestinian
territories, Afghanistan and Sudan taking centre stage. I visit this exhibition
every year and always leave asking the question: which trouble spots will
feature in next year’s exhibition? Wouldn’t it be great if I came to the
exhibition in the future and there were no photographs available in these categories
because war had ceased! The loss of a few photojournalists’ jobs would be a
small price to pay…….
Back in the real world, Paul
Hansen’s photograph of a group of men carrying the bodies of two dead children
(killed in an indiscriminate Israeli missile strike) through the streets of
Gaza City won first prize overall. Indeed, I was surprised at how many
photographs of the brief flare-up in Gaza in 2012, in which over 100
Palestinians were killed by the Israelis, were on display whereas the Syrian conflict
was not particularly well represented. Presumably the reasons for this relate
to the relative ease of press access to different war zones.
Whilst the general news stories
primarily related to harrowing tales of death, loss and destruction, other categories
provided the viewer with some more uplifting stories. The London Olympics were,
of course, well covered with some spectacular set piece scenes and thrilling
action, but a personal favourite was Wei Seng Chen’s amazing action photograph
“Joy at the End of the Run”, in which a competitor and his animals reach the
end of a bull race in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Photo-journalism can, in the right hands, be an incredibly
powerful means of transmitting news and carrying messages to a worldwide
audience. With photographers from 124 countries participating in this year’s
competition it really is truly global. The power of an image to provoke emotion
is well demonstrated in this collection, as is the lasting importance of the
still photograph in telling the stories that are happening all around us.
However, I felt let down by the manner in which the exhibition was held: surely
it deserves more space and a quieter venue than this.
Learning Points,
Future Work and References:
The reasons why press
photographers carry huge lenses around with them in many situations were very
clear here: some of the action shots were stunning. Many of the individual
winning entries also demonstrated the ability of the photographer to capture
and then select the image that displays “The Decisive Moment” from perhaps the
hundreds or thousands of images that they took of a particular event.
No comments:
Post a Comment