Press Review
David Schonauer
The Weekly World Tour
Ivory Coast, Part 1. ”The country erupted into turmoil this week as protests against the rule of President Laurent Gbagbo met resistance from his security forces. These demonstrators gathered in a section of Abidjan where six women had been killed.” Photo by Issouf, Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images, ”Lens,” New York Times
Ivory Coast, Part 2. ”The sign reads ’Gbagbo—too much blood poured because of you’.” Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters, ”Big Picture”, Boston Globe
Ivory Coast, Part 3. ”This shot was taken from an armed United Nations watch tower.” Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP, “Big Picture”, Boston Globe
Libya, Part 1. ”Rebels hold a man accused of being loyal to Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. The picture seems to capture the breath-holding moment between life and death.” Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters, “Lens”, New York Times
Libya, Part 2. ”Tomasevic shot as a rebel fired a cannon near the town of Ras Lanuf, a key oil-production site. Qaddafi’s forces fought back with their own cannons as well as helicopters.” Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters, “Lens”, New York Times
Tunisia. ”Egyptians living in Libya have been fleeing the country. The bus this man is boarding, rather quickly, is leaving a refugee camp near Euchoucha.” Photo by Joel Saget/AFP, Los Angeles Times
Yemen. ”Anti-government protesters in the country’s capital show that an uproar can be fun, as long as you’re not the one going up.” Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP, Washington Post
Pakistan. ”An oil tanker bound for Afghanistan burns after being attacked. These men seem to be taking the event in stride.” Photo by Qazi Rauf, “Lens”, New York Times
Afghanistan. ”During a graduation ceremony at a military training facility in Kabul, an Afghan army recruit marches through smoke that is nothing like the fog of war.” Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters, Boston Globe
The Beautiful People. ”A big, shiny, tasteless metaphor. In the case of reality television’s “Jersey Shore” star Snooki, it’s perfect.” Photo by Mark Seliger, Rolling Stone, March 17, 2011
The Beautiful People. ”This reality television star seemed a little bored playing Cleopatra for Terry Richardson’s camera. Who can blame her? Being Kim Kardashian is probably more fun than being the Queen of the Nile. Who needs Caesar when you’ve got Caesar’s Palace?” Photo by Terry Richardson, Harper’s Bazaar, March 2011
The Beautiful People. ”Christian Bale just won an Oscar for portraying fallen-angel Eklund in The Fighter. This portrait captures the real Eklund in an ambiguous moment, somewhere between menace and fear.” Photo by Jeff Riedel, Men’s Journal, March 2011
The Beautiful People. ”Here’s another portrait where a metaphor is needed. Jack Dorsey keeps a low profile, and most people wouldn’t recognize him the man who invented Twitter, unless there were a little blue bird on his shoulder.” Photo by John Huba, Vanity Fair, March, 2011
Ivory Coast, Part 1. ”The country erupted into turmoil this week as protests against the rule of President Laurent Gbagbo met resistance from his security forces. These demonstrators gathered in a section of Abidjan where six women had been killed.” Photo by Issouf, Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images, ”Lens,” New York Times
David Schonauer begins his press review with images from the Ivory Coast where supporters of the two presidents, Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara, confront each other. The country is on the verge of civil war. Issouf Sanogo’s shot for the New York Times shows a crowd of angry men following the murder of 6 women in a neighborhood of Abidjan.
Luc Gnago also photographed for the Boston Globe this angry crowd of men, showing a masked man in the foreground with a machete in his hand. Rebecca Blackwell (Boston Globe) proposed another point of view: that of the United Nations.
In Libya, the craziness of Muammar al-Qaddafi has taken over an entire population. The image by Goran Tomasevic is shocking, a black man, between life and death.
Joel Saget, for the Los Angeles Times, followed the escape of Libyan emigrants to Tunisia that generate occasionally comical images. In the same genre, but this time in Yemen, with an image by Muhammed Muheisen for the Washington Post.
In Pakistan, men on the street seem to have become accustomed to trucks burning, as Qazi Rauf shows for the New York Times. The photography by Ahmad Masood in Afghanistan (Boston Globe) is surrealist, a soldier appears from green vapors, a flag in his hand, all of this a symbol?
In his section “Beautiful People”, David Schonauer chose the very metaphoric cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Snooki riding a rocket and a series of portraits: Kim Kardashian as Cleopatra by Terry Richardson for Harper’s Bazaar, Dickie Eklund boxing by Jeff Riedel for Men’s Journal, and the most stylish: Jack Dorsey by John Huba for Vanity Fair.
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