It is true, a picture is worth a thousand words

I know it is a cliché, but it is really true that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, and this exhibition shows that,” Micha Bruinvels, project manager of the World Press Photo, said during an interview at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel. “And what we do is show all the thousand words and more in them.”

What Bruinvels was addressing was the almost continuous criticisms of the violent nature of the pictures shown every year in the World Press Photo exhibition, which goes to more than 80 countries across the globe.

And at times other sensibilities are hurt.

He relates the time when in one country (he would not name it, but admits it was an Islamic country) the authorities did not like a picture of American Olympic athlete Marion Jones.

They objected because in the picture, she was wearing a tiny short, which showed the length of her legs.

“When we were not there, some government official came and put a sticker over her shorts, but we came back and removed it,” he said.

“We do not accept censorship of any kind when we show our exhibition. If the authorities ask us to remove some pictures, we just pack up the whole exhibition and go elsewhere.”

Bruinvels says the aim of the organisation is to promote and support press photography in whatever form it may take. In that case, everyone is free to send in as many pictures as they can for the annual contest.

In this years contest, more than 63,000 photographs were received from more than 4,000 photographers across the globe.

After receiving the pictures, then a jury appointed by the World Press Photo organisation goes to work.

There is a first round when pictures are short-listed, and then a final round where the winners are picked.

Bruinvels insists that the 13-member jury is completely independent, although the organisation picks, no lobbying please, the members. There is a different jury ever year, made up of photographers, photo editors and photo agencies managers.

“We do not influence the jury at all,” he explains.

“We issue guidelines, but only about the different categories in the contest, but they decide the merits of each picture on their own.”

There are several categories, including general news, spot news, people in the news, and contemporary issues.

There are also others like art and entertainment, sports, and nature, which take up almost half of the exhibition.

The jury takes about two weeks to asses the different pictures and chooses the best for that year.

Unfortunately, most these are from spot news, and many of them are referred to as ‘cruel pictures.’ “What happens is that most of what makes up our news is from conflict areas, and there are always conflicts going on,” Bruinvels explaines.

“Like the pictures from Liberia, the jury decided that they showed what happened last year, although some were not cruel. Like the picture of a mass grave, it looks serene, but then there are pictures of fighters, which shows what it was.

Would they run any kind of picture? Are there restrictions on what they can show or not?

“Every photo sent becomes part of the contest. We do not hold anything back, but give everything to the jury,” he says. “Whatever the jury decides becomes worth for exhibition.”

What about pictures like a rape scene, or one of pornography? “If the jury decides that the picture is worth showing, we would show it.
There is absolutely no censorship whatever, and we abhor it,” Bruinvel says.”

Some pictures are disturbing, or cruel, or just plain nasty, how do you justify their being shown?

“What happens in our exhibition is that we are showing what is happening in the world. People might have heard about a certain event, but they had not seen it.

Press photographers are the eyes to the world, we show what is happening, and it is up to the reader to decide what is good or bad. The picture can strengthen the text of what really happened there. A picture is really worth a thousand words.”

You saw the picture in The New Vision of a girl whose lips were cut off? People complained about that.

“I think it strengthened the text, although some people might think that the new Vision is exploiting the lady in the picture. But it shows what is happening up there, the reality of it, and reality is not always nice or pretty.”