Press Photos

At an emergency food aid center at a village in Niger, Africa, on August 1, 2005, a one-year old baby with typical symptoms of malnutrition was pressing its despairing mother’s lips with its skinny fingers because it was hungry. Nothing can convey the scene of hunger due to a drought and a locust plague more vividly. Finbarr O’Reilly did not miss the moment, and his photo touched the world to tears.

Press photos are straightforward. They thrust scenes of human life and death, of joy and sorrow, before us without a bit of hesitation. Photos are brimful of blue waves of emotions deeper than what are on prints. Photojournalists and photographers who want to grasp the vivid moments of life are threading their way through historical scenes of war or disaster.

The 2006 World Press Photo Exhibition, the dream stage of photojournalists, will be held at the New Exhibition Hall of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul. 4,448 journalists of 122 countries submitted 83,044 photos for this exhibition hosted by Dong-A Ilbo and the World Press Photo Foundation. 200 photos by 63 journalists were selected in 10 sections such as “Contemporary Issues,” “Daily Life,” “Portraits,” and “People in the News,” and O’Reilly won the premier World Press Photo of the Year Award. The exhibition tours more than eighty cities in 45 countries every year. This year’s exhibition is the third time in Korea.

The exhibition also features photos of dynamic sports scenes. The animal-like sense of photo journalists can be found in a photo of a boxing game, in which the mouthpiece of a boxer is flying away in the air with the other boxer’s punch in the face, and in that of a bullring in Columbia, in which the raging bull is rushing towards the camera.

One can also see the fruits of photographers’ sincerity to turn everyday life into historical records in such photos as of a circus troupe member standing with a hyena in Nigeria (Daily Life) and of the humorous expression of a veteran who attended a ceremony that marked the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII (Portraits).

The exhibition, which starts on August 3, continues through September 4. The entrance fee is 5,000 won for students and 8,000 won for adults. Some photos awarded can be seen at www.donga.com. For inquiries, call 02-736-2261 or 02-399-1165.

Yeub Heo heo@donga.com