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| Samuel Aranda: The important thing is the pictures |
Samuel Aranda, Spanish photojournalist World Press Photo winner, talks about the craft and how to monitor the revolutions have been Arabs. The exhibition with the best photo journalism should be back to Macau in October.
It is likely that some of those who visited the Garden House between September and October of last year still remember several of the pictures there exhibited. But it is also normal that many have disappeared from memory. The photograph of the Spanish Samuel Aranda who has just won another edition of World Press Photo, the most important reward world of photojournalism, is among those not too shocking, perhaps, may even go unnoticed next to the blood more explicit.
This will pass and now, it seems, can be seen in Macau along with many others in the next October. The House of Portugal, which in recent years has brought exposure to Macau and the Garden House - the only place on Chinese soil where it has been shown - PERIOD told that although there is still no confirmation, the talks are forwarded to the best in the world press photo published again be enjoyed in the territory.
A photograph of Samuel Aranda, a man of 33 years born in Barcelona and began his career at 19 in El Pais and El Periodico de Catalunya, would be captured on 15 October 2011. A woman completely covered embraces a wounded man. The stage was Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, a mosque during the popular uprising in the country was transformed into a hospital by the forces opposing the regime of President Ali Abdallah Saleh.
"On that day the protesters protests began at 10am and the military through the demonstration began firing on them. The photo was taken near a mosque that was being used as a hospital. This woman, Fatima, is to hold the child while waiting for medical help, "says Samuel Aranda, by telephone from Yemen.
The connection is bad and it is not easy to hear the words of the photojournalist. The day in Yemen is of some importance, because it is the aftermath of the presidential election Tuesday, which had the only candidate - Vice President Abdurabu Mansur Hadi - but also the power to remove the name of President Ali Abdallah Saleh's political scene . "This implies in principle a transition and a constitutional reform, and a general election in a couple of years. The situation is more or less quiet in the center and north. In the south there are some separatist conflicts, "he continues Aranda.
Feminine forceThere is a photojournalist camera in hand, which in recent months has passed by Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other parts of the tumultuous Arab world. And there's a woman hugging a wounded man. What drives the lens to go in that direction? "There were a lot of chaos, a lot of people running, noisy, and this woman had an attitude of tranquility, a lot of wholeness in the midst of all that chaos."
Samuel Aranda explains what you can remove the photo you did. "I think we have an idea of an Arab world where women live entirely oppressed, always below the man, and I think it is not so. In most cases, women are responsible for many things. In this case it's own son, but women are very important in these societies, much more than we think, "bails.
Despite having covered some of the most emblematic of the movement of popular uprising known as the 'Arab Spring', the photojournalist is not aligned on generalizations that marry the different movements and ensures that "in each place was a different story in each country a different context ". In Tunisia the turn "was much more passive, no weapons, no nothing." In Libya "was a civil war more than anything else. They are very different cases, one can not generalize. "
Award of oxygenSamuel Aranda is in Yemen, where he has spent the months October, November and December last year. At that time "was quite complicated to work, because the police and the army of the government you could not identify yourself as a journalist." Aranda decided to remain and work in the country without authorization. People gave him security to do so. "In what is civil society have not had any problems. People are very friendly, very open and friendly. "
The prize was awarded to him this month "is very good at getting to do new projects, because people are more open to support," explains the man who has photographed in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, and even in Morocco China. More important than the high profile that brings the World Press Photo "images are" captured and that "the fact that the picture came back in the news these days," he recalls.
The image was selected from more than 100,000 photographs in the competition, written by 5247 professionals from 124 countries. It will be one that, from April 20 in Amsterdam, will join the new exhibition of World Press Photo that will travel more than 120 cities around the globe. "It's a picture that talks about across the region. Represents Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, all happened during the 'Arab Spring', "said Koyo Kouoh, one of the jurors, said in a statement.
Despite the difficulties that have passed since he chose to devote himself to photography, Aranda account to continue. Where will the lens is more difficult to say, but can pass through a homecoming. "I do not know ... I said several times that he would shoot the current situation in Spain. I would love to have a perspective that, to see how young people rise up in revolt against Spain and the system we have. "
More distinguished photojournalists
The World Press Photo distinguished, and Samuel Aranda, professionals in various categories. The Japanese Yasuyoshi Chiba won the first prize in category "People in the News Singles", with a report on Japan after the tsunami that devastated the country in March last year. One image shows a woman to do the diploma of his daughter, found amid the rubble of the city of Higashimatsushima, north of Fukushima. The photojournalist Afghan Massoud Hossaini also saw their work by the jury awarded the World Press Photo, a photo taken with a Shiite shrine, the scene of an explosion on Dec. 6, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A photograph of an Afghan child 12 years to scream along with several dead and wounded won second prize in the category "Spot News Singles." The Russian Yuri Kozyrev won first prize in the category "Information" by the photograph of a group of Libyan rebels, captured on March 11 in Ras Lanouf. In the category "Contemporary Issues Stories" stood out Mexican Pedro Pardo, for his work on the war of the drug cartels in Mexico. The World Press Photo jury also awarded a special mention of an amateur photography that shows the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, when he was captured and dragged into a military vehicle on 20 October 2011 in Sirte, shortly before his death.
