World Press Best Photo of the Year
I love this photo. It has the essence of true art; it is immediate and compelling, and pulls you in. Or at least it pulls me in. It reminds me of the Pieta (see end of article)
From the Huffington Post on AOL News:
New York Times photographer Samuel Aranda was announced the winner of the iconic World Press Photo competition on Friday.
The 55th annual jury of the World Press Photo contest selected Aranda’s photograph of a woman consoling an injured male relative in Yemen as 2011’s photo of the year. The woman is covered almost entirely by her burqa, by exception of small parts of her face and arms that seem to sneak out from beneath her robes. Aranda took the photograph in a Sanaa mosque that was being used as a hospital by demonstrators protesting against Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Times’ Lens blog described the winning photograph as having the “feel of a Renaissance painting.” Mr. Aranda told the Times that it was one of the first shots he took during his two months on assignment in Yemen. “The woman is not just crying. It was something more. You can feel that the woman is really strong,” Aranda said of the female subject in his photograph.
The World Press Photo competition is one of the most famous competitions for photojournalists in the world. The award-winning photographs are made into a traveling exhibition, which visits more than 45 countries over the course of the year. Click over to the World Press Photo website to view all the winners and exhibit schedule.
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I saw this and posted it on my FB wall today, as I was so moved by it, and I also thought of La Pieta. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to see the original in Italy, and I was amazed that I could make a similar connection with just a photo. My heart goes out to all the mothers who survived the Arab Spring, and I pray their families find peace and healing as they continue to struggle for the world they want for themselves.
To me, it is the human experience, and how we are all more alike than we are different. A woman grieves the loss of her husband/ son/ grandson/ brother, we don’t know who but we know the image of love and loss. It rips your heart out, doesn’t it?
I love your comment Patricia , you said it all. it is so sad , it rips your heart out..
It’s an amazing photograph and really does have the feel of the renaissance. There seems to be such a desperation in the man and such a need for consolation while the woman seems to have so much control and ability for comfort. I think for sure this must be either his mother or a much older sister, some sort of mother figure, you know? Overall, beautiful but very sad, almost too sad to keep looking at.
OK, look at her hands. Look how she grips his head and holds him like she never wants to let him go. Look how her left hand grips his right arm, and makes a complete circle holding only the two of them, all else is outside the circle. It is SO intimate. It could be a mother and son, or a sister and her favorite brother, or it COULD be a wife who has loved this man from the time she first saw him as a little girl, or a wife whose time with her husband has been too short.
In my opinion, what makes this so universal and so gripping is that it could be any relationship between a man and a woman. There is no lust in this photo, only pure protection and loyalty and deep, deep commitment . . . and loss.