“Happy 2009″ / El roto (El País)
2008 - Pictures of the year
2008 is coming to it’s end and, as usual, the media is coming up with selections of the most representative photographies of the year. You can easily come across some amazing imageries by surfing the web but among all of them I’d like to highlight a pair.
Reuters has summarized the year in 135 pictures about some of the hot topics of 2008 as the Olympic Games in Beijing, the arrest of Josef Fritzl suspected of keeping his daughter prisoner and abusing her for 24 years, Obama’s victory and the conflicts from Georgia, Congo, Afghanistan and Palestine.
The New York Times has created a beautiful slideshow with audio and extra information on the issues their pictures portray. It’s more based on the American territory and it’s divided in eight sections: The election, The economy, The nation, The world, Iraq and Afghanistan, Arts and Entertainment, Sports and The region.
A boy in Gori, Georgia, stood near the remains of a medium-range Russian missile that crashed through his apartment during fighting between Russiand and Georgian troops. The New York Times/Joao Silva
Reza: Bearing witness to war and peace
I strongly recommend you to listen to this interview from NPR to Reza Deghati, considered among the world’s great photojournalists. His latest book, Reza War and Peace: A Photographer’s Journey, is a retrospective of his amazing work as an eyewitness on various conflicts. On the link you’ll also find a selection of some of those photos.
“I heard some demonstration against the shah — and this was in those days unbelievable,” Reza tells NPR’s Scott Simon. “Nobody really thought that there would be demonstrations on the streets because the presence of the secret police and army was so strong … that nobody would dare.”
As he watched from the window, army jeeps arrived and soldiers began shooting into the demonstrators, many of whom were students.
One of them “had a camera and he was taking pictures and running,” Reza says. “This was a moment that really changed my life. The day after, I was on the street starting [to take photographs], and day after day I just forgot to return back to my office. And this was 30 years ago.”
Sudan, 1989: “I saw his feet, scarred by chains that also bound his hands. His eyes were resigned, his violence contained.” - Reza
