The Times Picture Annual 2011
edited by Darrin Zammit Lupi Allied Publications pp192
ISBN: 978-99909-3-166-2
The new world of mobile phone photography has turned the public into instant photojournalistsand opened a door to “citizen journalism” that has toppled governments and dictators across continents.
Thousands of images circulated around the globe before pictures from journalists actually came in- Patrick Fenech
Top news channels worldwide now rely on amateur stills and footage to bring tragedy and glamour to our sitting rooms, with the screen warning: “What you are about to see has scenes of a graphic nature”.
A Syrian demonstrator waves his mobile phone/camera high in his hands and shouts to a Sky News team “The camera is our weapon” as atrocities unfold around him.
So where does this place the professional photojournalist in today’s scenario?
Does he or she have to comply with the rigid ethical framework while amateur pictures make the front pages?
A classic example is the tsunami disaster in Indonesia on Boxing Day 2004. Thousands of images circulated around the globe before pictures from journalists actually came in.
I took a quick glance at The Times Picture Annual 2011 and flipped through the pages as if running a reel of film.
This enabled me to spot the pictures that stand out above the rest, a filtering system I developed through my career as a photographer and picture researcher.
Matthew Mirabelli’s front-cover photo heralds an exciting picture book and looks stunning cropped vertically; better than the actual landscape version inside.
The contrast between the committed athlete and the gesticulating man uncovering his navel, both in the same stance, is quite fascinating.
The touching picture on page 36 of a young Japanese girl collecting money for the victims of the Japanese earthquake is rife with poetry as her eyes shyly move away from the path of the camera. Matthew’s photograph on page125 of an “aquatic gladiator” turning to the frenzied crowd with its excellent highlights and composition reveals his skills as a man watcher waiting for the precise moment to capture human ecstasy, as is revealed by his other pictures in the sports section.
The dramatic photograph taken from an unusual and unexpected angle on pages 34-35 is Darrin Zammit Lupi’s excellent interpretation of a mundane road accident.
Now turned into high drama, with the zigzag concrete structure and the menacing urban shadows looming onto the unstable white vehicle, it is a picture reminiscent of the famous American photographer Paul Strand.
Making the viewer contemplate over the picture was at the root of his philosophy of photography.
The transformed bonnet of a car covered with photos of Libya’s civil war taken in Benghazi is another strong image from Mr Zammit Lupi’s work. It shows a young boy gazing into the car’s bonnet and seeing fragments of war as if walking through a picture gallery.
The subject of visual represent-ations of war and violence in our culture today has changed from the Crimean and civil wars to the almost instantaneous transmission of images during the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts.
In this picture Mr Zammit Lupi urges us to think about suffer-ing, without resorting to scenes of violence.
Similarly, Jason Borg’s photograph on page166 captures the “right moment” as the green Jamahiria flag drifts away from its pole and is replaced by the rebels’ version of the Libyan flag in the course of this civil war. Valletta’s City Gate is destroyed by the action of two pecking iron dinosaurs in a photograph that evokes scenes from War of the Worlds or Jurassic Park. Chris Sant Fournier (page15), intelligently frames the mechanical diggers suspended high above the crowd, out of focus in the foreground as if watching a movie .
Another stunning picture by Mr Sant Fournier is that of a grey crowned crane on page 56. The portrait approach makes the subject human rather than animalistic, conjuring images of primitive tribal masks.
In the book’s introduction, consulting editor Victor Aquilina remarks that it largely features a collection of images that celebrate life – doing away with pictures of a gruesome nature, hence the title of the introduction To Publish Or Not To Publish.
A newspaper editor must decide between satisfying the reader’s sadistic appetite and carrying a picture despite its gruesome nature, in an endeavour to alter public opinion.
Several iconic photographs have made an impact and changed people’s opinion around the world. “The Vietnam Napalm Girl, Kim Phuc”, taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, changed the way Americans looked at the Vietnam conflict and increased public revulsion against the war.
Kim Phuc became an anti-war symbol and the photograph won Nick Ut the Pulitzer Prize in 1972.
• Mr Fenech is a practising visual artist, photographer and educator.