Injured Protester by Laith Al-Majali
An injured man is placed into a car after Gaza protesters clashed with riot police in Amman, Jordan
61 thoughts on “laith al-majali – gaza protest”
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Injured Protester by Laith Al-Majali
An injured man is placed into a car after Gaza protesters clashed with riot police in Amman, Jordan
Comments are closed.
wow! far from being just a journalistic documentary image of that event in Amman, this photo has perspective, composition, moody light, texture and emotions. Well done, really!
Nice picture of that crazy war. I like very much the story into that photography: from the man, to the scarf then to the reflection of the sky. Well done.
I appreciate those that are out there able and willing to risk telling sharing the stories of what is happening out there. I really appreciate this photo in a variety of ways. nice work and thanks.
There has been so much controversy from the various photo communities in regards to Burn. But as everyday passes Burn for me has personally made a difference. It in fact has gone from me thinking about its consistency to “consistent”. I’m really digging it. Even the simple things as truly focusing on one piece of work by not letting anything else dominate when presented has made a difference. I have no choice but to focus which is great given everything seems to make me feel like I have ADD.
… ouch!! I feel that photo, and the troubles there now… Very timely.. It has a surreal quality to me, with the reflections and light, but what I like about the word, surreal, is that it is so real…. **
I think it’s a good move to show this while it’s going on than waiting for when we have had time to mull over it.
This one pulled me in. Very well done, Laith. +1
Composition-wise, this is a magnificent photo. But it struck me as vague, which is not necessarily a criticism. It is almost dream-like; it looks real yet feels contrived. The moment for the photographer and the people in the photo must have been anything but, yet the end result (the photograph) has a peculiar quality… its seems ethereal. Whether this is a positive or not I haven’t yet decided; I really am impressed by the photo…
it’s CRAZY how many absolutely amazing and powerful images are made every day, we are inundated… as a photographer i find this inspiring; as a human being it’s a poetic picture of pain. this is as good as anything made by any “name” shooting for VII or Magnum… if it was by Nachtwey you’d say “the guy is just unbelievably great.”
Laith Al-Majali — thank you — stay safe.
(note to Ed. — ANY chance of links to contributor’s websites as a matter of routine?)
A strong image of a sad moment… for human kind.
Photography-wise an excellent picture, congrats
JC
for me, the one rule of photography that i subscribe to, whether it is with PJ, doc or personal stuff is this: get close….
in this photograph, we get pushed up against the glass, the fear and smoke, the pain and anger and madness of what is currently going on, both in gaza and throughout the world as we heart-breakingly and maddeningly try to make sense of this impossibly broken time….besides the obvious visual complexity and emotional power of the photograph, what i cherish about it is that it takes me RIGHT THERE: into the heart of the fever and the madness and confusion…
a powerful and timely and expressive moment from a heart-breaking time…
looking forward to seeing more of Laith’s work….
richness and madness: the tumult of our incorrigble species…
thank you so much for posting
bob
very timely.
Thanks for posting this photo editors, its nice to see some current affairs amongst the simply magnificent selection so far. I think the picture is a lovely mix and certainly fits in with and yet compliments those chosen so far. Its a lovely mix, of dreamlike vision, almost as if there is no war, but just peaceful lifting up into the white fluffy clouds, that being said for me to say this photo says something of the war in Gaza would be false. Its taken during a demonstration in Amman, a place where thousands upon thousands of Palestinians are still treated as 2nd class citizens, living in dire poverty, many separated from their children, husbands, wives, fathers, well you get the point. So, personally and this is just for me, not a reflection of the wonderful artistic photo presented here, I would want something stronger, something profound to reflect what is going on in the arab world in a demonstration in a country where the majority of the population are refugees.
I like the photo, yes it is timely, but does it reflect truly what the people feel or what I feel right now knowing that 971 people living in the prison of Gaza have died…I would have to say no, it looks more to me like an artistic portrayl of a cold and cloudy day in Amman than a people demonstrating for those they love in a land from which they are exiled.
really nice piece of reportage photography.. and a travesty what Israel is being allowed to do in Gaza in the name of self defense. At this point over 900 Palestinians killed (the majority of which are civilians not to mention children) compared to 10 invading Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians. truly despicable. shame on the Israeli government.
how does the US government respond? by sending 3000 more tons of ‘ammunition’
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20090111&articleId=11743
shame on the US government.
good Bill Moyers piece
I am grateful to see this photo today, especially today. What is happening in Gaza eats at me night and day. Having Laith’s image to ponder brings it all home.
So that’s how the content touches me, but the photo itself is a surprisingly artistic documentary shot of a very real situation. To my mind, it is truly genre-bending, an image that refuses to be pinned down to one “style” or another. It is all about photography as a means to express the inexpressible. Bravo to the photograper!
And I echo Pair of Eyes’ wish that you will stay safe, Laith.
peace
Patricia
Burn is on fire!
This image has it all.
Very well done.
also – check the ning group ´frames of reality¨ for the situation as photographed by Palestinians..
frames of reality is dedicated to connecting photographers in israel and palistine with the rest of the worlds media.. it´s a group of 500 or so i believe, run by a really good guy.. obviously since the latest round of atrocities the place has evolved greatly.
http://edutmekomit.ning.com/
Hello people. I like to see some reference to the reality. There are a lot people dead out there. Don´t know the date of this picture but is good to get some wire to earth. I love to see the different photography experiences here, I like it or not, but sometimes is good to remember the world in where we live. And our brothers in genere. The next, please, someone to remember why is value to be alive :)
and of course Laith…
brilliant.. demonstrations are so difficult to photograph without cliche.. you have caught a real moment of expression which is easy enough to read.. and with the chirascuro.. smoke..
evokative stuff..
thanks for sharing..
peace for all
great work,, darken a little the highlights in the left corner, not much. would draw more attention to your main motive. in his face there is also space for more powerful highlights.. the image would be even more powerful.
This is great. What I love about PJ. I’m in the car, silence, after all the madness and noise outside, calm in there.
Thanks for the post.
haunting…
nice piece of reportage photography. powerful image.
a nice Bill Moyers piece:
Yes Laith, as David Bowen has said, demonstrations are difficult to cover without falling into cliche. I like the photograph, it works on different levels; at once a news photograph – the first news photo for Burn – and also a good example of how reflections can add more to the primary subject. Congratulations.
Mike R.
This is brilliant. The expression on the injured man’s face, the grasping hand, all viewed through the reflection of the clouds … it’s a dream-like image but still rooted in a sad reality, which makes it even more powerful.
Cheers,
Andrew
I agree with Stefan that the picture could be a more powerful if you darkened the bottom left corner a little. Not a vignette, but the dark parts of the smoke… Not too much to not lose the form of the glas. Also the lines of the heating in the glas are very important for me …
As has been said before, the composition is quite intriguing. I have never seen such a photograph.
Somehow I picture a carefully looked after car. Seats neatly covered for protection for day to day use (kids to school, parents to visit, …) – not expecting to be soaked with blood.
I might be overinterpreting but it kind of jumped at me: somehow a car, with heated glas etc.etc. symbolizes in a way the potential of men to be innovative and creative. To grow. Apart from the fact that this man is being aided, all the rest you see in the picture actually stands for the opposite …
David B. I’d recommend checking out some very recent, and IMO, extremely powerful photos from a photographer on Flickr who was on location until just a few days ago. One of the best new PJ’s I’ve come across in a long time. Just get past his first page of photos back at home and it’ll hit you. It hit me in a very good and bad way.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32345496@N03/
All has been said…powerful journalism….I would like the left burned but realize that is not the modus operandi. Peace and love
btw
kloie picot
thank you for the background information! I am ashamed to admitt that I do not know very much about the situation in Jordan …
It is much more difficult to talk about this photograph now having the information you just posted.
Yes you are right in saying that the information is not in this particular image. But then … it was not posted to show this information. But as a single here with the caption that was delivered with it. The story you are pointing at, probably can only be shown by an essay, which maybe (?!) Laith Al-Majali will submitt also. I do not know it but I would hope he does.
So I think it is demanding too much on this section of BURN, that every picture submitted just coveres the whole thing. I think very few people managed to get such a shot. Mostly you will need more than one image to tell the story, especially in PJ, were you cannot just make up the best possible combination of things to get it all in.
So I’d like to give this picture the credit of showing me what it mentions that it wants to show me and how it does it. I am not asking for more, unless the photographer tells me he wanted it all in and I just cannot see it.
Hope you do not get this as critizism. Far from it! Your information about the background was absolutely important! I very much would like to know more about the situation and hopefully we will … sometimes soon … get to see some more photographs here about this.
Peace and love (the best to say here)
Lassal
http://majali.blogspot.com/
I very much understand your point, Kloie. And after visiting your web site, seeing only a few of your photos and reading a bit of your story, I understand on an even deeper level. You know from the inside what is going on for the Palestinian people, whether in Jordan, Lebanon–where generations have been kept in refugee camps in the south–and Gaza/the West Bank.
I was taking photos myself last Thursday at a pro-Palestinian rally/march for the people of Gaza here in Detroit. Most of the 1000 in attendance were Palestinians of all ages. Although the demonstration was peaceful, the emotions were raw. Rage, pain, grief, fear, impotence, sadness. All were mixed together into a mass of suffering. Many have family members in Gaza. I can’t imagine what it must be like for them.
Regarding Laith’s photo, I saw it less as a dreamlike image and more as a scene engulfed in tear gas. Artistic, yes, but very very real. Painfully real.
Patricia
Al Jazeera is the only news service that has journalists reporting from inside both Israel AND Gaza. To read and see what is actually happening inside Gaza, go to
http://english.aljazeera.net/
For the rest of the photos of the protest
http://www.majali.blogspot.com/
Very well done, powerful. I can’t stop looking at it. Horrible situation, amazing photo.
This one, and some of the other images from the set are pretty strong, thanks for sharing them.
I wonder if any of the protests were aimed at Hamas doing something harmful for Palestine. Or was it all concentrated around anti-Israel sentiments?
The pro-Palestinian demonstration I photographed in Detroit had a couple dozen pro-Israel counter-protesters who were carrying signs about Hamas, but none of the Gaza supporters had any anti-Hamas signs or banners.
Patricia
How wonderful Palestinians have so many friends around the world, this said sincerely, yet as sincerely do I thatCambodians, Tutsis and in a large measure, Darfurians had and have had so few, when it would have mattered so much.
I meant of course: …Do I regret that Cambodians…..
I am so sad to understand that it is taking this war, to raise awareness in the west as to the plight of the Palestinians in the west bank and gaza and in all the other refugee camps all over the middle east. For years I have refered to the Palestinians as pawns of peace, used by everyone, including their own government and their muslim brothers. Hell, there are still Palestinian refugees from Iraq sitting on the Iraqi – Syrian border!!! But times are a changing and perhaps now we can wake up to the spin doctors of the Israeli government.
THIS IS NOT A JOKE: Olmert calls Bush, interrupts his meeting in Philadelphia to demand that Condi Rice not sign the UN resolution. Later and in the open, Olmert brags to his people that he got Bush to tell his secretary of state to abstain from a resolution she herself cooked up, organized, phrased and maneuvered. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arrange, Olmert said.
I looked at the rest of the demos on the blog, keep it up keep it up…keep it up..
Thanks for the link to the rest of Laith’s photographs of the demonstration Lassal. You posted yesterday that you may need help with some translation into English if you were to post more often. I was going to offer my help but you really don’t need it; your English is very good. Please keep up the comments.
Good light,
Mike R.
This picture has a powerful pull, potentially sucking us into a vortex of misery.
What can we do to stop the barbarism in the Gaza Strip? I applaud Ban Ki-Moon’s tough stance. We must find a way to make this stop. I haven’t bought Israeli products for years though I like those tough camera bags they make. But I’ll not buy one. Nor do I buy hummus from there anymore either. I used to buy lots of it.
It’s a tiny effort but if enough people did something then maybe we could effect change.
Mike R, that is a really nice offer from you – thank you a lot! I think I was referring to Duane Michals yesterday. Cliff had posted the link for me to have a look at and Duane Michals uses language along his photographic work, a very powerful layer of words that opens a parallel room to the photographs, really adding to it. To be able to do that you need to have a good grip on a language … to be able to mold it adequatedly. My English is ok for some superficial comments here, but not more. When Joe writes me an email you can picture me sitting here with my big dictionary until I understood what he wanted to tell me :) It is kind of annoying. But I am slowly getting better at it.
I do not bother toooooo much here on the comment section, but obviously it would go terribly wrong if I tried to add value to my photographs :))
Thanks again.
Laith’s photographs are quite intriging, are they not? I hope he submitts an essay to EPF …
I hope you are ironic?
People are getting butchered – and you are talking about dodging and burning!
What is this? Documentary? Art?
An injured man is placed into a car.
People like it, because it reminds them of the ongoing conflict – without being unpleasantly graphic. We don’t want to loose our appetite…
We see just the right amount of pain in the facial expression – not so little that we would doubt his pain – and not so much that it becomes painful to look at.
I don’t have anything against this photo, but I find the comments surreal and creepy.
Almost a 1000 people have been butchered so far – one third of them are children!
I find that it’s not appropriate for this community to sit and discussing burning and dodging techniques, – while children are bleeding, suffocating, crying in fear, getting eyes smashed by shrapnel and legs demolished by DIME bombs!
I think that BOBBLACK’s comment is somewhat symptomatic for this community:
“we get pushed up against the glass, the fear and smoke, the pain and anger and madness of what is currently going on, both in gaza and throughout the world […] besides the obvious visual complexity and emotional power of the photograph, what i cherish about it is that it takes me RIGHT THERE: into the heart of the fever and the madness and confusion…”
No Bobblack, “we” are not pushed up against the glass fear and smoke here. This is nothing. AND it doesn’t take “you” into the “heart of the fever and the madness and confusion”. This is nothing –and you know nothing of the situation in Gaza after looking at this picture. AND it’s not about “you” or “we” or our emotions to the photo. It is about “them”. Those who cry and fear and bleed and die!
Bobblack and the other commenter’s intellectualized treatment of Gaza atrocity and associated photos is highly inappropriate – to put it mildly…
We, this community, are sitting in comfy chairs spread around the world in safe distance from anything remotely harmful. We are looking at a photo which reminds us of the situation in Gaza. But at the same time the picture is “soft” enough to not be too disturbing – actually we like the composition – and it’s kind of “nice”…
What is wrong with the “big picture” here?
For those of you who don’t understand my point.
Take a look at this flickr-set – and try to apply the comments from this thread…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32345496@N03/sets/72157612319891701/
SOREN…
i understand your anger…we are all angry….and you are right, none of us can know the real pain that is totally unimaginable for those of us now sitting at our keyboards…this picture certainly was not published here as anything other than what it is…one simple picture of one man’s pain…symbolic but certainly not all inclusive, nor all explaining, of the scenario that is erupting before our eyes at this moment…as i write you now, CNN is showing me even more carnage and the live coverage television offers cannot be realistically matched here…
however, in the history of conflict photography , single photographs have done more to “get” to people than all of the explanatory larger coverage…i am not suggesting this is such a picture…but i do see it as a symbol of pain, if not telling us of all the pain….
please remember i only am publishing here what the readers of BURN send to me..i am not accessing the news services, nor do i intend to do so…this is not the purpose nor the point of BURN..i would be very pleased if you were to submit what you think are appropriate photographs for discussion..
your outrage is well taken believe me…your outrage is my outrage…unfortunately, i do not think we are going to see any end in sight any time soon….
many thanks for your comment….
cheers, david
hey darrius
i saw them recently as well.. tough.. very very tough.
thanks.
no question that what is happening in gaza is disgusting.
here in norway some newspapers have been bold enough to publish REAL photos of the more disturbing aspects of the israeli action and MORE POWER TO THEM.
certainly more graphic than anything i have seen in other countries.. and one more graphic than the flickr set, which as i noted above is extraordinary.
soren – it is a simple photograph on a simple photo community site and i would not chastise any for reading into it or appreciating this photo.. this is not a political forum, after all.. and bob, who you single out, does a great deal of good in educating eyes – which is what this place is about.. i was pleased to see a reference to gaza at all.. because of the many blogs out there, so very few have bothered.
we´re all angry about it.. furious at our relative countries inaction.. furious with u.s. politicians for not backing directly a ceasefire..
we´re fighting the same fight i am sure..
Søren,
I do get your point. But you yourself are showing us WHY this discussion here is important!
To explain your point you are showing us powerful photographs that speak and communicate. Photographs that cry out loud and scream for interference. Why? Not only because the situation there is terrible, but also because the photographs are excellent!
We are here as photographers to talk about how to approach this, how to manage to get to these powerful photographs. We discuss the impact a photograph has on us and what would be necessary to optimize them. So that, at the end, these photographs can go out there into the world to speak to the masses, so that something can be changed in the terrible situation in Gaza, Jordan, Zimbabwe, Haiti, there are so many ………
Søren, the photographs are our “weapons” and “shields”. And we are sitting together to make them better. Unfortunately this means to talk about certain things that do sound absolutely crazy when you think of the topic of the photograph …. I agree!!! And I am sure everyone here does to!
But … doing what we are doing we are DOING something. Maybe we are no great fighters with real weapons, maybe we are no good politicians or diplomats who could convince various countries to finally opt for peace … But we try to be good photographers, so that our photographs get out there, much as the ones that you showed to us, to FIGHT for the cause!!!!
That is our way. That is, in my eyes a good way. The best that I myself could do. I would not be helping in any way by merely going crazy here over the horrors of war. But maybe some good PJs can do something with his photographs. Photographs that are passed along. Photographs that speak so directly that not a 1000 words could replace them. Photographs that are accepted in being powerful.
There was just a huge article here in the news talking about how the different parties in the war are trying to controll the pictures that go out into the news. Why? Because they can change the worlds mind. On the other hand side: if there are no photographs, things are not on people’s minds.
Yes. Sometimes the words used here might not be appropriate for the topic. But maybe you can forgive us under the light of what we are trying to achieve. And maybe you can help us to become better.
Thank you for your input.
Sincerely,
Lassal
Thanks Soren. I added him as a contact.
Do we know if any of these images have been published?
It seems a waste for this kind of work to not be SEEN in a big way.
Terrific photograph. I sort of take the point that a couple of posters have made about the extreme highlights in bottom left but that’s more of an issue of taste than judgement. I love reportage that leaves space for lyricism — it makes for powerful pictures that still leave room for the viewer’s interpretation — so I love this. Well done, Laith.
cheers, alun
Ok Lassal, I understand. I have been aware of Duane Michals’ work for many years. He uses photography and language as a form of artistic statement. I once had a book “Darkroom” from Lustrum Press” (1977). I wore it away. among the featured darkroom users were Duane Michals, Jerry Burchard and Ralph Gibson. You probably are aware of them: your work and theirs resonate similar emotions.
My German comprises of “One large beer please” and “Have you a tablet for headache”!!!
Best wishes,
Mike.
Soren
January 14, 2009 at 8:20 am
I hope you are ironic?
People are getting butchered – and you are talking about dodging and burning!
…………..
Soren, you leave my my opinion, I leave you yours… ok? thank you very much.
perfectly understandable, well said.
“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”
— David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s “Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
___________________________________________________________________________
“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours…Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”
— Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
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A truely fantastic image! Congrats and keep making images like this.
Best, Wendy
First off i’d like to thank you all for your comments on my image. David thanks for choosing it for burn, it means a lot, i’m glad that we as emerging photographers have such a platform to interact in. I won’t get a chance to reply to all the comments but i’d like to say that i found nothing but encouragement from what you said, thanks for some of the technical comments too they were helpful. The image in itself doesn’t represent the whole conflict in any way, this was a moment captured after a peaceful demonstration against what was happening in Gaza got violent in Amman. I was there to capture the demo, thought it was a good chance to get some images of the anger on the streets of the city i live in, couldn’t have expected it to turn this violent. So when i submitted this image i did so because i thought it was a powerful picture as is, without the whole context of the conflict or the event itself, otherwise i would have sent in a whole essay. Thanks again for the encouragement to keep shooting.
?
Well said!
This is a compelling photograph, and a courageous one at that given the circumstances. I can see clearly why David posted this photograph.
Regarding the political discussion above, I am perplexed at the one-sidedness of the comments. As photographers, and particularly as photojournalists there is an onus to be unbiased and to observe without preconceived notions. Unfortunately this rarely happens.
There is no mention of Sderot, the southern Israeli town that has been the target of thousands of bombs launched from Gaza, even during the months of “cease fire”. Nor is there a mention of the fact that Hamas endangers its own civilians intentionally, by launching these missiles from civilian areas. Nor is there a mention that Israel sent in leaflets to these civilian areas, warning about impending retaliatory attacks, in order to limit civilian casualties. Jon Voigt has tried to raise awareness about these issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phTtykyzWm0
However, unilateral scapegoating and blame has never advanced peace, and never will. There are always many more facets to a difficult political situation, than what filters through the popular media, both east and west.
What can photojournalists do to promote peace rather than inflame misconceptions, bigotry, racism, and hatred?