The power of photography to be showcased in Dublin
Prizewinners from last year’s contest are on show at The chq Building in Dublin’s docklands until Dec 22. The images, culled from over 100,000 entries, are a mix of portraits and shots from all walks of life, including the natural world, sport and war zones.
The overall winner is a photograph by Swedish photojournalist Paul Hansen entitled Gaza Burial. It was taken in Nov 2012 and depicts the dead bodies of a two-year old boy, Suhaib Hijazi, and his brother, Muhammad, who was not yet four years of age, being carried by their uncles to a mosque for their funeral in Gaza City. The boys’ house had been destroyed during an air strike by Israeli forces. Their father, Fouad, was also killed while their mother and four siblings were injured.
“I thought it was a magnificent image,” says Bill Frakes, a jury member. “It’s bold and brassy and in your face. There is so much drama, so much tension, and it speaks to the long-running conflicts in that entire region. It’s such a powerful, poignant picture.”
A media-generated storm blew up about Hansen’s use of tonal software to create a heightened, almost cinematic feel to the image. Frakes discounts criticism of the photoshopping technique, saying it wasn’t an issue when the jury assessed the photograph.
“Paul Hansen is a man of integrity, a top photojournalist. A lot of people were criticising the photograph for reasons beyond their comprehension. He worked with the entire image on levels and layers instead of doing an individual correction. The rule for most photojournalists is that ‘anything you couldn’t do in the darkroom, you shouldn’t do on the computer,’ but that’s a fallacy because a digital image is pressed in different ways than filmmakers did it.
“The people that were complaining were either jealous or had a political axe to grind. There was a lot of conversation from both sides of the spectrum that he was pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli, but the people who make those arguments have never been in that situation. When you’re back-pedalling in front of a crowd of people carrying their dead children, you’re thinking, one: don’t let me fall down and get trampled; two: compose, focus, expose.”
Many of the exhibition’s photographs inevitably have a political edge, although Michiel Munneke, managing director of World Press Photo, says there are offbeat images that he found particularly arresting.
“One I’m very keen on is the picture taken by Søren Bidstrup. It’s a very ordinary situation where he takes a photograph of his wife on the toilet while on holiday in Italy. It’s very recognisable. It looks like anyone’s family at home.”
Most of the images that come in are rather graphic, says Munneke. “They often make you cry. But a picture like this gives hope and pleasure. It’s a very intimate, ordinary moment. It’s a breather in the collections we have. Every now and again when I watch the people visiting our exhibitions, you see that people need a little bit of a break in between the more conflict-driven imagery. The news-driven pictures are part of the DNA of World Press Photo. It’s an important section of what we do, but the World Press Photo is not only about conflict and horror. It’s also about hope and joy.
“If you talk to people starting out on their careers as press photographers, they feel they need to follow the news — to go to conflict areas or disaster zones. Often I discover it is more difficult for people to really photograph the ordinary, and come up with something compelling.
“You have to snatch the film and be aware of these moments and click the shutter.”
Santiago Lyon, who chaired the 2013 photo contest jury, is vice president and director of photography for Associated Press. He was born in Spain to American parents in 1966, but he grew up in Ireland, attending secondary school in Bray, Co Wicklow. He spent the guts of 10 years covering warzones.
He says he became a photojournalist because it gave him the chance “to have a front-row seat while history was being made”, and he believes in the power of photography to help make political and social change. He offers an interesting take on what compelled him to stay out in the field so long despite, for example, being wounded during the Balkan wars.
“I was — and am — a very determined individual who finds it hard sometimes to let go of things. I believed very strongly in what I was doing and still believe the value of what I did at the time. There was a lot of conviction there. A lot of the creation of one’s identity is tied up in it. When you develop an expertise and get a reputation for being a skilled practitioner of something — regardless of the field, whether it’s being a war photographer or a plumber or an architect — it becomes part of your identity.
“In the case of war photography, that line of work is not only very dangerous but also quite compelling in the sense that you never feel so alive as when your life is in danger. If you combine that with your strong conviction and belief in what you’re doing, it becomes more than just a job — it becomes a way or life and an integral part of who you are.”
* The World Press Photo 2013 Exhibition is at The chq Building, IFSC, Dublin Docklands, Dublin 1 until Sunday, Dec 22. Further information: www.worldpress.ie.
The first World Press Photo award came about when a Dutch photographers’ union decided to turn a national contest into an international competition. Its first international exhibit was held in Dec 1955.
Interestingly, during the Cold War, World Press Photo juries (whose members change every year), always included sitting members from both the United States and the former Soviet Union. Their votes usually balanced each other out.
In its maiden year, the competition included entries from 42 photographers, incorporating 300 pictures. This year’s winners were chosen from 103,481 photographs, and are paraded around the world in approximately 100 local exhibitions.
Only submissions by professional photographers are accepted, although a “Special Mention” is allowed in certain cases, for example when Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was snapped walking on the moon.
A separate section for colour photographs was introduced to the competition in 1965.
