War and childhood

A total of 120 photographers from 37 countries of the world have taken part in the competition. The most famous periodicals of the world, in particular Time, Washington Post, El Pais, Le Monde, Spiegel, etc., have published the photo, reportedly by Telekrytyka.

“I have been working in the areas of military conflicts out of a variety of reasons. Everything goes to extremes there. There you act differently than in ordinary life. You feel differently. I am attracted to how people behave in these situations,” Telekrytyka quoted Alessio Romenzi as saying. “Sometimes I have a feeling that I am not among human beings. Apparently, soldiers feel as if they are on the arena where they are allowed to do everything. They are ready to kill and die. As for me, the civilian population is in the worst situation. They are on the threshold of hell, with their lives being null and void. They struggle for survival. When people face this kind of events, they go back directly to the state of being an animal.”

During his short career, the author of the winning photo has worked exclusively in hot spots. He was born in a small Italian village Colle Sant’Angelo. He started to be professionally involved in photo journalism in 2009, immediately after graduation from the Rome Higher Institute of Photography and Integrated Communications (ISFCI). Practically at the beginning of his career as a reporter he started working in Egypt, Palestine, and Israel. When he learnt about new upheavals in Syria, he went there and made there the shot of the frightened girl.Reportedly by Telekrytyka, Barbara Davidson, staff photographer for The Los Angeles Times, considers that the winning photo is a work of artistic value, namely because it evokes a whole lot of emotions and reveals the depth of tragedy of armed conflicts in our time. However, there are other estimations of what modern quality war photography should be. In particular, The Associated Press photo journalist Efrem Lukatsky, who has worked in many hot spots, specifically Gaza, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Iraq, is sure that the greatest value of a photo is in capturing tragic realities of the war as it is. On the whole, the expert opines, a quality photo should prompt an inner resistance to war in people’s souls. The photographer considers that Romenzi’s photo won in the competition because of the tendency of being drawn to a kind of synthesis of elements of documentary and artistic photos that can be traced these days in the art of photography.

“In spite of certain depth and lyricism, the photo of a Syrian girl, which has been recognized the UNICEF Photo of 2012, does not convey the whole tragedy of war, and won’t be able to stop it,” Lukatsky considers. “This may be a good photo from the artistic point of view, but when you know that your fellow photo journalists are working in the epicenter of events, practically under fire, risking their lives in order to make a really worthy photo, while works with distorted attitude to these events become winners in prestigious photo competitions, you feel surprised, mildly speaking. Better photos according to the versions of these competitions make war reporters think: why go under fire and risk your life, when you can make a similar shot from a long distance, get prizes and world recognition. I dislike this tendency. It reminds me of the last year’s decision of the World Press Photo Contest when I said that the jurors have never seen the war.”

So, the genre of military photography has been considerably changing?

“Yes. Not long before his death the well-known German photographer Horst Faas, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a friend of mine, published a book Requiem, containing the photos of Vietnamese authors with whom he had been working hand in hand and who were killed when they were working at war. When I look through this album again, I understand that namely this book contains real worthy documentary photos. These shots show real horrors of war, urging the society to think on how to stop the war. Most of the reporters go to the hot spots above all because they want with the help of their work at least to try to put an end to the war, in particular, by showing it as it is. Picturing a pretty girl in a colored dress with soldiers in the background is a totally different thing.”

But the horrors of war do not need to be shown only via depiction of extreme amounts of torn parts of human body and blood.

“Sure. A journalist is not a pathologist who explores and shows ripped-off heads. No way. The value of a war photo is in conveying the entire pain, despair, sadness, and even sufferings of the victims of war with the help of an artistic approach to a tragic situation. A reporter’s shot becomes a work of art if it shows a tragic situation by way of artistic means. The depth of what you depict should always be present. People today do not want to see real tragedy and blood in the photos. My fellow journalists at The Associated Press have held a special survey in this field. They published on the website the photo depicting the head of a kamikaze who killed himself with an explosive belt. My colleagues in all countries of the world have been carefully monitoring how many periodicals would publish the photo. None of them did. People do not want to see this kind of photos. By the way, people read newspapers and magazines also when they drink their coffee or eat a sandwich. True, today we are witnessing the tendency to popularization of artistically rendered war photos, which bring emotionality and lyricism.”

You made the photo in which a soldier of the US army talks to a boy while patrolling the Iraqi city Tikrit. Please, tell us, have you personally met many children in hot spots?

“In the wars, wherever and whenever they take place, there are many children, women, and helpless elderly people. They often lack money for bread, therefore they cannot leave for safer places. The war is practically taking place in their houses. Of course, a journalist who works in hot spots can see that namely women and children suffer the most, therefore they often come into the focus of their professional attention. Many journalists suffer and perish in the wars, too. The conditions in which they are working are not as romantic as we can see in the movies. Everyone knows that he may be killed. Journalists fight their fears by thinking about the result of their work.”