Comment: Winning Image from World Press Photo 2011

Samuel Aranda's photograph of a Yamani mother holding her injured son won the world press photo 2011. There are several interesting article analysis this image.

BBC posted the story behind the image. The article is as below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/17111673

There is an article from David Campbell discussing how people over-analyze the "artistic point" of the image, as well as different come up with different symbol they can associate with in the image.

http://www.david-campbell.org/2012/02/20/this-photo-is-not-just-what-it-is-reading-world-press-photo-debate/

And here is an analysis from Marc Prüst on why he thinks this image deserves to win. Here is couple things he said I would like to quote.


"a photograph cannot and does not provide context, it cannot explain a situation, it does not show reality, a photograph does not say more than a 1000 words..... Because its beauty forces the viewer to look closer to what is happening ..... and it invites the viewer to read the caption. The caption then provides the context essential to a fuller understanding of the situation, and the story, actually one of the most important stories of 2011."

The full text is here.

http://marcprust.com/2012/02/13/world-press-photo-of-the-year-2011/

So what do I think?

Ha. I have written a post on the work done by Natasha Caruana as well as the work by Zarina Bhimji in the OCA study day. Both of them have very good story to tell, and I have my hat off to both of them in trying to work on such complicated topics. Just by looking at their images, it makes me wonder what on earth are they trying to talk about. This is counter-intuitive, given that I don't think some of the images are that strong. In fact, if I have not read the article about their work first, I would not be seeing the photographs at all. After I read the story behind, suddenly their works make so much sense. So it is not triggered by the photographs, but the story behind.

The image from world press photo, most the other awarded as well, are visually strong. When I saw the photographs, I would like to know what's going on behind them. I think, having a good story is one thing, having a visually strong image is still a plus, unless, you get people to promote your pictures and somehow people pay attention to the background to your work and look at your work again. For those who has one chance to get through the editorial desk, bad image will not land you there.