I knew something was going on when my blog stats spiked over the weekend. Prison Photography interviews with those who photographed Fabienne Cherisma’s body in Haiti were drawing readers … and they came from Sweden.
PAUL HANSEN’S SPoY WIN
At the Swedish Picture of the Year Awards, photojournalist Paul Hansen was recognised as International News Photographer and won the International News Image for his image of Fabienne (below).
Fifteen year-old Fabienne Cherisma was shot dead by police at approximately 4pm, January 19th, 2010. Photo: Paul Hansen
In March 2010, Hansen answered some of my questions about the circumstances of Fabienne’s death, “For me, Fabienne’s death and her story is a poignant reminder of the need for a society to have basic security – with or without a disaster.”
Paul Hansen was one of eight journalists I quizzed about that fateful day in an inquiry that revealed that 14 photographers were present immediately after Fabienne’s death.
At the time, I noted how the Swedish media and public discussed the ethics of the image and that, by comparison, similar debates were absent elsewhere.
The debate has continued following Hansen’s award, focusing on Nathan Weber’s image (below) that was first published along with my interview with Weber.
Photo: Nathan Weber
Weber’s image has unsettled many it seems. Judging by garbled Google translations here, here, and here it seems there are a few issues:
– General surprise that Weber’s image – and the revelations it brings – was not widely known before the SPoY award.
– Rhetorical questions about whether – given the scores of photographs made – Hansen’s image was “the best.”
– The expected accusations of exploitation and vulture behaviour by photographers.
– Fruitless thoughts on “truth” within this particular image.
Before they awarded Hansen, I wonder if SPoY were aware that so many photographers were present? Would it have altered the final decision? The image of Fabienne limp on the collapsed roof (whoever made a version) is the summary of innocent death, a society’s desperation and the man-made tragedies that compound natural disasters. It’s is a striking vision.
The circulation of Weber’s image has fueled skepticism toward photojournalism.
The problem with these types of brouhaha is that never are they able to measure if or what effect images – in this case Hansen’s – have. Did Hansen’s image secure a dollar amount of donations for the Haitian relief effort? Did it mobilise professionals and resources that would have otherwise not have moved?
If we are to talk about the “power of photography” then shouldn’t we expect and/or propose criteria for measuring and defining that “power”?
MICHAEL WINIARSKI, REPORTER AND HANSEN’S PARTNER
It should also be noted that Michael Winairski won the the award for News Storyteller from Dagens Nyheter, the national news outlet he and Hansen work for. When I contacted Winiarski last year about coverage of Fabienne’s death, I was particularly impressed with his transparency and commitment to the story. He and Hansen followed up two months after the killing and met with Fabienne’s family.
On receipt of the award, Winiarksi said, “”I’m glad we did not let go of Haiti. I and the photographer Paul Hansen have been back twice. And Paul is down there now with another reporter, Ole Roth Borg.”
ACCOLADES AFTER RECORDING DEATH
Paul Hansen is not the first photographer to be awarded for coverage of Fabienne’s death.
James Oatway won an Award of Excellence at POYi in the Impact 2010 – Multimedia category for Everything is Broken. Fabienne’s corpse open the piece and appears again in images 25 to 33. Olivier Laban-Mattei won the Grand Prix Paris Match 2010 for his coverage of Haiti, including the aftermath of Fabienne’s death. Fredric Sautereau was nominated for Visa d’Or News at Perpignan for his coverage of Haiti, which include seven images about Fabienne’s death.
There may be others.
33 comments
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March 23, 2011 at 5:12 pm
robert
How incredible a story. Thank you for sharing !
Please have a good Thursday.
daily athens
March 23, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Jim Johnson
Thanks for this thoughtful post (and, while I’m at it, for the blog more generally. I hope all is well.
March 23, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Zarina Holmes
I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this – but I thank the photographers for documenting this – in doing so, we hope this story would open our eyes to the reality of moral and material poverty in Haiti.
My initial instinct when I saw the photos – I feel like grabbing a sheet of paper or something and cover Fabienne body until the family come. Out of respect. But that would tamper with the crime scene. Also not sure if it would be safe to stop people who was stealing from Fabienne’s corpse. Were they armed? What would you do in such lawless situation?
Personally, I wouldn’t want to be in Nathan Weber’s photo – being one of 14 professionals who check my camera to see if I got a great shot in the frame. But I was not there, I wouldn’t know how I would react myself. I’m not saying the journalists are immoral or their award prizes are blood money. I don’t think they come from that place.
I don’t know what to call it. Sad, maybe. No right words for Fabienne’s death.
March 23, 2011 at 11:22 pm
petebrook
It is an incredible story, and yet a year on I don’t know if there are any conclusions.
March 23, 2011 at 11:24 pm
petebrook
Cheers Jim. All is well enough. I certainly cannot complain. Each day I have enough reminders (through photography and media) that their are people a whole lot worse off than I.
March 24, 2011 at 7:51 am
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March 30, 2011 at 5:45 am
C.
The “behind-the-scenes look depicting photojournalists crowded around the scene of a tragic incident” shows what photojournalism is all about – it should have won the award. It is more about what was happening then the more artistic version of the one that did win. In fact, if each of them took the photo of the corpse from virtually the same vantage point, who is to say that one is better than the other? Winning an award such as this comes to being in the right place at the right time.
April 7, 2011 at 12:57 pm
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April 11, 2011 at 5:05 am
from spain
it´s a shame!! this photography has no ethic; one more time, mass media shows his truly face…a very awful face.
April 11, 2011 at 5:16 am
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April 11, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Cornelius
The good pic is the second one
April 12, 2011 at 1:37 am
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April 19, 2011 at 10:38 am
elmo
it kinda, sort of irks me the wrong way to see the context photo of the gang of photojournalists ,All 1st world white men with privelege taking shots of black lifeless bodies. there’s something that speaks of white entitlement that makes it seem less problematic in their consciousness to go to foreign countries and ‘shoot’ brown and black people. the privelege, entitlement and the trigger finger and the fuckin awards makes everything justifiable. i know what i’m saying sounds harsh and controversial and i know the majority of the photographers who read it are white men with cameras. i saw one of these photographers present a slide show including this photo. not at any point did he give context to the process of taking photos in haiti. to the outsider, it gets explained that there is the lone photojournalist documenting the horrors of poverty, disasters, etc. the audience got to ooh and ahhh about the brave courage of the white photojournalists in the midst of chaos. it kinda, sort of makes me sick to my stomach.
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April 28, 2011 at 3:41 am
Paula Mira
Hi, I’m a spanish student. I think this post is very interesting because you show things that mass media never shows. In my opinion humans are very contradictory and this is a clear case of diferent points of view on a same person depending on the context, but sometimes we need images like Weber’s one to remind us that real life is like this.
April 28, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Robert Salmon
Regarding the racist commentary of the poster above, I’ll point out that most of the rescue and support resources after the Haitian disaster were sent by demographically “white” countries and organizations, spurred by the influence of images made by these privileged “white” (and Latin American, etc) photographers who make him sick to his stomach.
Elmo, did you put your holier-than-thou self or livelihood on the line to assist the Haitian victims or call attention to their suffering? If not, then you have no serious basis from which to criticize those who did so at their own very real peril. Your comments only serve to divide and to foster hatred, not to encourage understanding and participation in improving third world conditions.
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June 8, 2011 at 1:28 pm
elmo
robert. seriously fuck charity by ‘white’ demographic countries. that is all it amounts to-a handout, a charity. a place in heaven for and a pat on the back. i realize that direct service is what is needed in time of disaster but let’s contextualize the colonial history of haiti and how it became what is now in the hands of ‘white’ countries. ofcourse i realize haiti would have to take some responbility but please read up on how economics of a country are affected by colonizer countries, internation monetary fund agreements, the overthrow of democratically elected leaders and the ‘white’ countries that help dictators to be placed power. besides that. i think. i much prefer context photos like this of white first world ‘shooters’ shooting the dead black girl. how does this help the disaster? tell me? how does this raise awareness? it helps win awards though.
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