Title: World Press Photo 08
Publisher: Mets & Schit
Cover photograph by Tim Hetherington, World Press Photo of the Year 2007 Winner

If Mother Earth kept a diary, what stories would it tell? Tales of violence, of destruction, of war, of anguish, of strife – if these pages are to be believed, the world is a minefield of devastation, mostly caused by Mankind himself. Life is a strong, bitter medicine, seems to be the message here; yet peppered amongst the pages are the odd moment of joy and spontaneity, sweet and sour spliced with the unpalatable just to make remind one that life, in all its splendid, sordid glory, is nevertheless worthwhile in the end.



Photojournalism at its epitome presents facts and facades of the world in the most elegant, arresting visual formats. It does not seek to answer, merely to raise questions on the state of global affairs and leads us to come to our own conclusions based on what we know or believe in. Like a veritable looking glass where the good, the bad and the ugly are all presented for scrutiny and amplified in stark detailed, the best work lays down the structure for question, discussion and – hopefully – change.



As Gary Knight, Chairman of the 2008 World Press Awards jury puts it: “The judges sought to reward creative, effective journalism and were excited by images that didn’t offer simplistic solutions, but which did something more difficult – stimulated viewers’ curiousity and raised questions in people’s minds. This is as much about journalism as it is about photography, and in looking through this book the reader accepts a responsibility handed on by the photographers and the jury to learn…Much of the work you will see in these pages…represents the wrld in a way that many of us are unaccustomed to seeing it; in a way that throws down a challenge to the public to re-engage with the media. It is also a challenge to those of us in the media who may find these essays uncomfortably unorthodox. The future has arrived.”



The prestigious award of Photo of the Year 2007 was swept up by Tim Hetherington, and portrayed a soldier of Second Platoon, Battle Company of the Second Battalion of the US 503rd Infantry Regiment, sinking onto an embankment in the Restropo bunker in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, which was the epicenter of the US fight against militant Islam and scene to some of the deadliest combat in the region. Of the prizewinning photo, Hetherington has this to say: “It’s a picture about feeling. It has the feeling of the soldier in it, but it also represents my own feelings of fatigue at the time. Since then, people have started to ask whether soe who view the photo put their own narrative onto it, as members of a Western culture tired of war. But in a sense there is a certain fatigue with the wars that are happening at the moment, and the picture does capture that.”



Like the most private of entries in a diary, World Press Photo 08 as though you’re voyeuristically peering into the most intimate details of other people’s lives, tinted through subjective lens. Turning the pages of this particular publication is no easy feat, seeing as every photo evokes some particularly strong sentiment in you, the feeling being somewhat akin to someone sticking a finger down your throat and violently forcing a gag reaction – living these pages, you can’t help but feel somewhat used and abused at the end of the day. The best entries in one’s diary are often outlets for self-reflection, and in this the work featured in World Press Photo 08 is no exception.



In capturing the records of what happens outside in our beautiful, broken world, World Press Photo 08 forces us to turn inwards and look within ourselves for answers. Daily destruction has turned even the most innocent children into hardened individuals, old before their time – while this is life as they know it, we sit on the other end of the divide, refusing to give a voice to hard-hitting, real issues that, while may not impact us in our lifetimes, would definitely make a difference within our children’s or grandchildren’s lives. Can we make a difference? The decision lies with you.



© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.