The Face of War
In my mind, the most powerful and haunting image in this year’s crop of World Press Photo winners was the photograph by Nina Berman of disfigured U.S. Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel and fiancée Renee Kline’s wedding day, which won 1st Prize Singles in the Portraits category.
The first time I saw it I was quite shocked and it’s an image you can stare at for ages and read all sorts of things into how each party is feeling - maybe accurate, maybe not - but there’s no doubt it violently succeeds in drawing empathy out of the reader.
Salon.com are currently running a fascinating interview with Nina talking about the couple and how the photograph took place. They also link to a London Times article and gallery of Nina’s photos chronicling Ziegel’s recovery and wedding day - which is really interesting to see as it gives much background and shows a different side of the couple to that shown in the surely iconic image. Be sure to take a look at her website too, having a number of rather nice galleries including one on a similar subject entitled “Purple Hearts“.
Her image proves that even in this fast-paced low-attention-span world of infotainment that we now live in, the still photograph continues to have the power to shock, really shock… and that’s a good thing.
Update: For more analysis of Berman’s picture, Dennis Dunleavy has a thoughtful commentary here and here.
