Saturday, January 01, 2005

Photo-journalists covering the effects of the tsunami in today's New York Times

Starting with photographers again. Chaiwat Subprasom (Reuters) has a photo of a candlelight vigil on New Year's Eve in Thailand to remember those who died in the tsunami on the front page of the New York Times. Gurinder Osan (Associated Press) has two photos on A6 of people in Nagappattinam, India as aid begins arriving. Also on A6, Elizabeth Dalziel (Associated Press) has a photo of "Muslims unloading aid boxes containing drinking water outside Galle, on Sri Lanka's southern coast."

Saeed Khan (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) has an especially powerful photo of two workers checking the "DNA numbers written on body bags of victims for identification" on page A7. The same page also features Barbara Walton's photo of "Espen Bjornsen, a Swedish tourist, comforted his wife Tuija, while the couple waited yesterday to be evacuated from the airport in Phuket, Thailand." (Walton is with European Pressphoto Agency.)

Photos of mourners are found on A8: Sri Lankans in Kelaniya (Sriyantha Walpola -- New York Times); Thais (Jean Chung -- New York Times); a gentleman in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka (Chang W. Lee -- New York Times) and a young girl in Kuala Lumpur (Pacik --Agence France-Presse/Getty Images). On the same page, Bay Ismoyo (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) has a photo of "A health official, left, fumigated yesterday near victims' bodies in Banda Aceh" Indonesia.

In fact, let's make this entry just about noting the photo-journalists who conveyed with pictures the devestation (to the land and to the people) from the tsunami. I'll do something on the reporters' article in a little while but I really did fail in not noting the work of photo-journalists earlier so let's just let this be about the news they've delivered.
I'm not a visual person and I won't bore you by attempting to describe the photos but the above people (and many more) are working very hard to convey reality and they should be noted for it.