Admiring the 2012 World Press Photo Contest (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/gallery/2012-world-press-photo), a couple of things strike me: how the winning image echoes iconography going as far back as the European Renaissance. The first prize reminds me so strongly of dozens of paintings, often depicting catholic themes, many portraying suffering. I’m aware it portrays a Muslim woman with her wounded son.
The first time this occurred to me was during the war in ex-Yugoslavia. In 1990 the winning image of a wake, where family and friends were mourning a loved one, had such a Renaissance look, it seemed so much like one of that periods’ paintings. The colours were subdued, the people dressed in a manner that was timeless. In 1997 the same occurred.
But this is not a European Renaissance franchise. Human suffering is universal.
Other winning images have in common the shape of a pyramid, composed of humans overcoming extreme difficulties, the triumph of the human spirit. From sports to war imagery – such as the raising of the flag in Iwo Jima (which we know was staged, but it nonetheless became an icon) – the pyramid, triangles, diagonals, are successful compositional elements.
As beautiful as can be … honour is due to the World Press Photo organization and the photographers.
