REUTERS PHOTO JOURNALISM: THE WORLD IN ACTION: MOVE!
Edited by Ayperi Ecer and Jassim Ahmad
Pearson Education Limited, Great Britain, 2005
The forward by Monique Villa and Tom Szlukovenyi says it all “Every day, Reuters photojournalists move with the story to capture the world in action….Move! Is a powerful high-speed photographic journey. From the most recognised images to unexpected others, this special selection illustrates the momentum that reverberates through so many aspects of life.”
Often I don’t choose books but pick up a book which has been displayed by Tauranga City Library staff. Move! Is one of them. If there is any “reason” I picked up this book its the ironic image on the cover of two young black African boys running happily through a cloud of translucent winged insects – locusts.
Many of these photographs are dated as taken about 10 years ago. What’s scary is the contemporary associations. An August 2004 photograph of geometrically precise Ukrainian National Guard cadets marching through Kiev during a military parade. A May 2004 image of the hand of an Iraqi detainee in Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad. A June 2004 photographic of an Israeli border policeman firing a teargas canister during a Palestinian protest against the construction of the Israeli security barrier in the West Bank village of Az-Zawiya. A March 2004 image of a Palestinian man performing a somersault next to an Israeli Bank security barrier near the village of Abu-Dis. A March 2005 image of a Palestinian man who has used a slingshot to throw a stone at Israeli border policemen at the construction sit of Israel’s security barrier near the West Bank village of Beit Surik. And a photograph of Palestinian men and boys during clashes outside the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis in October 2000. And, what looks like a metal detector being run over a scruffy donkey which pulls the cart of a disabled man before he is allowed to enter a Basra polling station in 2005.
Yes there are images of sport, dance, vibrancy and colour but the most penetrating images for me are those that reinforce current circumstance. This is a book which is a reminder.
Rosemary Balu
