💡 SPOTLIGHT
The Eternal Dilemma Of War Photography: Between Sensitivity And Never Looking Away
There have been countless graphic images circulating of the brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the seven months of bloody retribution on the people of Gaza. Yet an image where you can’t see the victim has been recognized as the Photo of the Year. Irene Caselli writes for Worldcrunch.
It is a haunting image: a woman dressed in blue, her head covered, holding the body of a dead child covered in a white sheet.
The photograph from Gaza by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won last month’s World Press Photo of the Year award, and was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning series announced Monday in the Breaking News photo category.
Taken on Oct. 17, the portrait of such an intimate moment manages to capture the enormity of a war that has consumed the Middle East and the whole world.
When I looked more closely at the photo, I noticed the woman was wearing a denim abaya — and it was her everyday clothes that locked me into the reality that we can so easily escape by clicking away or turning the page. What I was looking at was not just an award-winning news image, not a painting or representation, neither abstract nor necessarily political.
I see a woman, probably my age, in the deepest of pain, holding a child she loves who has been killed. A child who looks to be the same size and age as my older son.
My sensitivity to such a work of photojournalism is both personal, and professional. I co-wrote a manual about how to report on children for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a U.S.-based organization for journalists who cover violence and conflict.
For both words and images, a commitment to freedom of the press does not mean carte blanche for publication is the best practice. Most experts agree, for example, that it’s best to avoid photographs of deceased people, or people in the process of dying. For children, identities and dignity should be protected with even more care.
“Images that violate the privacy of children, in my opinion, do not convey reality; instead, they fuel hatred and animosity. Such images do not stop wars,” says Jamal Saidi, former chief photographer in the Levant region at Reuters in the Children First guide.
There is the cautionary tale of another Pulitzer Prize winning photograph: “Napalm Girl”. You probably know it, one of history’s most iconic war images: a girl running away after a napalm attack on her town. The image captures her screaming in anguish and pain, surrounded by other stunned children. She is nine years old, and is completely naked.
— Read the full article by Irene Caselli for Worldcrunch
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Argentine daily La Nación features on its front page an image of Buenos Aires’s Retiro train station, which is an “image of total paralysis.” On Thursday, workers began a general strike against the austerity policy of President Javier Milei. The strike has affected most of Argentina, with schools, banks, shops and transport services all being affected. Milei, who came into power in December, has started to implement spending cuts he says are necessary to reduce public deficit and control Argentina’s inflation rate, which is the highest in the world.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
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• Volodymyr Zelensky has fired the head of his personal protection unit. This comes after two of the unit’s top officials were detained over an alleged assassination plot against the Ukrainian president. Serhiy Rud has led the president's security detail since 2019.
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