gaza protest by laith al-majali

60 Responses to “gaza protest by laith al-majali”

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• alun severn

  January 14, 2009 at 3:09 pm

  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
• Mike R

  January 14, 2009 at 3:18 pm

  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.
• Stefan Rohner

  January 15, 2009 at 5:05 am

  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.
• Stefan Rohner

  January 15, 2009 at 7:06 am

  perfectly understandable, well said.
• david b

  January 15, 2009 at 7:14 am

  “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.
• Wendy Marijnissen

  January 16, 2009 at 8:24 am

  A truely fantastic image! Congrats and keep making images like this.
  Best, Wendy
• Laith Al-Majali

  January 24, 2009 at 8:59 am

  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.
• Mike Wasp

  January 26, 2009 at 9:30 pm

  ?
• Mike Wasp

  January 26, 2009 at 9:31 pm

  Well said!
• Asher

  February 1, 2009 at 9:24 am

  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?

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