Wednesday 13 November 2013

World Press Photo 2013

...def worth seeing this exhibition on at the South Bank Center... some really shocking and disturbing images- got me thinking about art war terror, the ethics of photography; Sontag and the gaze...and the (seemingly) irrevocably screwed up world we live in... The picture below was one of my favourites by T Munita...more so due to the redemptive narrative behind it... (info below)


EL SALVADOR GANGS

16 August 2012
San Salvador, El Salvador
A member of Barrio 18 wears gang tattoos to show commitment for life.

Large-scale gang warfare has made El Salvador one of the most violent countries in the Americas. But on 9 March, leaders of the country’s two most powerful gangs agreed a truce, saying that the situation was getting out of hand, especially when it came to youth in their own communities.

The leaders of Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha-13 pledged to put a brake on violence and to stop recruiting adolescent members. The government agreed to transfer 30 prisoners held in maximum-security jails to less restrictive institutions.

The truce appeared to have some success. Homicides in the first part of the year were down 32 percent, and kidnappings dropped by half. On 14 April, El Salvador recorded its first day in three years without a murder.

Find out more: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/world-press-photo-2013-1000455