Violence is probably one of the most explored themes in photography and photojournalism. Throughout last week my posts were accompanied by images that recounted the effects of the earthquake in and around L’Aquila and, you could have spotted one main theme that recurred in all the images, the force and violence of the natural elements. Whatever the earthquake touched was inevitably destroyed, reduced to a mass of rubble and debris.
Touch and violence and the conceptual and physical meanings behind them are the main themes of the “Sotiri International Prize for Young Photographers". “At first glance violence as a concept appears as self evident,” Curator Harri Pälviranta states on the award site, “it is about abusive use of force or unjust exercise of power, or an impure act of aggression, whether physical of verbal and it can be both personal and structural. Also another key concept of the exhibition theme, a touch, seems a simple issue as in most general level it refers to a tactile act, person touching or getting touched by another person or thing.”
I recently sent my entry, a picture I took in March while I walked around Venice’s Jewish ghetto (will post it after the competition results are known). When I arrived at Campo del Ghetto Novo I saw, suspended among the barbed iron wires above the wall featuring Arbit Blatas’s bas-relief sculptures, a football. Trapped, the dark coloured ball cast its shadow against the blue sky and remained perfectly suspended in mid-air, as if caught in a pre/post-collision with the cruel spiked wire.
I felt there was a metaphor behind this image that perfectly symbolised the consequences of violence: even the “lightest” and “slightest” touch of violence can trap people and things, harm and traumatise them, leaving physical and emotional scars. The barbed iron wires that punctured and penetrated the ball had suddenly taken away the joy and happiness from the kids who were playing with it, interrupting their game, but also evoked visions of the past in the present, bringing back to mind a specific time, 1943, when German troops occupied Venice and deported the local Jews to the extermination camps.
As I looked on, I realised there was a further symbolism: the ball represented freedom, the barbed wire a metaphor for the constrictions imposed by censorship, the oppression of inequality, intolerance and racism. Yet I also found a positive metaphor in this image as the ball hadn’t exploded, but looked as if it stood undaunted in the face of violence, almost representing a person who, touched by violence, is still standing and screaming, “You have physically trapped me, but my spirit roams free, carried by the wind.” The competition - entitled after photographer Kristaq Sotiri (1883-1970), organised by Lindart & Anima Cultural Center (CCLA)/Projekt5.6 and aimed at establishing a photographic tradition in Albania - is open to Albanian and international artists and photographers (age: 20 to 35).
You still have a couple of days to send your entry (deadline: 15th April 2009) and can get further info on how to participate by clicking here. In the meantime, enjoy these beautiful shots from last year's edition.
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