Press pics picks

The World Press Photo exhibit
returns to Montreal

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES: First prize (singles)

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

The following happened in 2007:

The Islamic Courts Union is routed from Somalia; George W. Bush announces his plan for a troop surge in Iraq; an international panel of scientists conclude that global warming is very likely caused by humans; Barack Obama announces his candidacy; the Virginia Tech massacre; would-be suicide bombers set themselves on fire at Glasgow International Airport; Live Earth; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is busted in connection with a dogfighting ring; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released; a bridge in Minneapolis collapses, killing 13; Nicaragua is hit by Hurricane Felix; demonstrations by Buddhist monks are brutally suppressed in Burma; Russian police break up anti-Vladimir Putin demonstrations in St. Petersburg and Moscow and is declared Time magazine’s Man of the Year; Hugo Chavez suffers a referendum defeat in Venezuela; Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in Rawalpindi, Pakistan; riots break out in Kenya ahead of presidential elections; bombs blew up across large swaths of Asia and Africa, and violence continued in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel and Palestine. Got it?

WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR:
U.S. soldier in Afganistan

Along the way, the world’s press photographers were there, capturing images that translate headlines into humanity, delivering images that words often can’t describe. Often, they go behind the headlines, bringing to our eyes stories that we wouldn’t otherwise notice. Since 1955—and in Montreal, since 2001—the World Press Photo exhibit has brought the best, most powerful images from the previous year’s news to the public. It’s usually a stunning show, and this year, running from Thursday, Aug. 28 to Sunday, Sept. 28 at the Just for Laughs Museum (2109 St-Laurent, corner Sherbrooke), is no exception.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT: First prize (stories)

Spot News to Sports

Separated into 11 categories, the photos cover a lot of ground, from spot news—the winner this year is American John Moore’s blurred photo of the explosion that killed Benazir Bhutto late last December—to sports action to nature. The World Press Photo of the Year is by British photographer Tim Hetherington, shooting for Vanity Fair, and captures an exhausted American infantryman during a lull in fighting in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley.

SPORTS ACTION: First prize (singles)

This year’s exhibition director, Raymond Cantin, is actually the first person who brought it to Montreal in 2001. And while he says he doesn’t have a favourite among this year’s bunch, he has a keen appreciation for Moore’s shot—“all that emotion in the blink of an eye,” he says—and Denmark’s Erik Refner’s portraits of Copenhagen marathon runners crossing the finish line.

NATURE: Second prize (stories)

But, as always, there is more to the World Press Photo exhibit than just the World Press Photo. On the museum’s fifth floor, Cantin has assembled photos by 116 Quebec photographers into a collection of 400 shots, twice the number seen at the main show. On the third floor, he and exhibit spokesman Bernard Brault of La Presse, recently back from China covering the Olympics, are presenting some of their choices of the best pictures taken in Beijing.

Lastly, he wants to set up a sort of photography flea market on the terrace outside the museum, where local photographers can sell their works cheap, for between $5 and $20. This, he says, would draw additional crowds to the exhibit, which has seen attendance drop off after the first week or so.

“Whenever I go to cities like Miami, there is always a strong photography market, which is something we’re lacking here,” he says.

“I want to develop Montreal into a good market for photographers.”