Tuesday 27 September 2011

Photo of the Week

Similar to the Vietnam War photograph of the naked child running down the street in agony, this amazing photograph poses ethical questions, as it is capturing the murder of a human being while the photographer captures the event with his camera. It was taken in South Africa during the Apartheid years and depicts a a male supporter of the African National Congress, using a machete to hack at another man (a Zulu named Lindsaye Tshabalala) who is simultaneously being burned alive. The photographer did not intercede on the man's behalf or try to stop the crime, instead remaining a passive observer. Freelancer Greg Marinovich was responsible for capturing the event and received a pulitzer prize for the photograph of Lindsaye Tshabalala's Fiery Death. When reflecting on the photograph, Marinovich states that:

"This was without doubt the worst day of my life, and the trauma remains with me, despite some twenty years and a lot of coming to terms with the incident, my role and what it means to be involved in murder. This mudered happened a month after I had witnessed the one in Nancefield Hostel, and I was determined to redeem myself by not just being an observer. I neither saved him, nor redeemed myself, though at least I did not act shamefully.”



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