A woman holds her wounded son in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011
Here’s a few some of my favorites from the bunch on the tabs above. Even though some of these images are heartbreaking, there is inspiration in them, call to action, awareness. They’re depicting real people, real lives–and also the really hard work of the people who chase down the stories.To be a great photojournalist, you have to be immersed. You can’t hide behind the lens…you have to actually GO. Meet people. Shake hands. Ask questions. Which is sometimes unthinkable in war zones and impoverished nations. These folks did it.
All of these photos and captions are via World Press Photo.
Some of these images fascinated or inspire me, the rest quite worthy if a little familiar to the medium.
Personally, I feel that WPP and other salutes to photojournalism forget this: The photo is often before the journal. While the context of the photo is tied to the image being shared by it’s very category in the medium, to me a world-class image should transcend the story, standing up to the objective “great photo” it’s classing specifically for praise.
My case? I photograph people without pose at any chance I get, and that’s heavily cultivated my PJ interests. When I shoot events/travel/etc, my aim is to get a photo that (God, hopefully!) uses it’s beauty to drive home the story or inspire curiosity for more, while obviously containing enough elements for at least base social context.
Of course, what’s awarded “great” under any measure will please some, displease others. That’s the trip of this world we live in, thank goodness for variety sake!
So, my late night thoughts on the matter. I say that because what do I know, I haven’t raced through warzones! Any (somewhat) sane person who decides to put their safety at risk to such a degree is far beyond more than me claiming this as more than an observing opinion. As today’s’ death in Syria of photographer Remi Ochlik shows, photographers have their own lost soldiers, and deserve a good deal of the same respect. ‘Nuff said.
I ddn’t want PJs to entertain me, I want them to inform me. Stay away from the LATimes or NYTimes if you only want to see photos of fuzzy-puppys.
some of this years photos are.. a matter of discussion… as if the act on the photo was somehow mroe important then th photo itself….. I thought that WPP is about world events, but also about good photos (best photos) and some of those this year are… well.. not good as photos
I think that each of the photos are indeed powerful in their own right, but I would also agree with some of the other comments that each of them have a social or political movement behind them. There is nothing beautiful or admirable about war, chaos or destruction. Therefore how can we regard them as “best”? When I think of best, I think of things that makes me feel good. Things that I could spend hours looking at, or even include on my coffee table for conversation with friends. The list is too journalistic. Should the list not include things that we as people might see every day in our lives (considering where I grew up and how I grew up, I might be contradicting myself by saying this LOL). Things that people would ordinarily walk by without truly noticing the beauty of it until someone capture the moment in a photo, and we all say “aaahhhhh!!”… I’m just saying.
Wonderful pick, and considering the tragic news about Remi Ochlik (as Sheldon said) a timely reminder of the power of photojournalism.
I have to disagree with the person above who wanted to look at more happy American pictures. We can drown ourselves in a limitless opiate sea of escapist media at any time. If we are inescapably inundated with *anything* it is with glossy images of celebrities and models and the aspirational, pretty imagery of advertising. Not utterly brilliant photojournalism.
Wow.