War victim

your opinion?

Ouch! I photographed surgury once myself, A fasinating experience. My patient was asleep.

Looks not too interesting -- until you see the eyes looking at the camera. Powerful.

Very powerful, great composition. Could do with a little more punch.

OK. I saw this in colour on your website and I think it is your best journalistic "on the run" capture. I looked at it maybe 10 times, but missed it in your PN portfolio (because I did not expect B&W). They eyes of that man are amazing. Excellent image.

But why ~5.5 ?

Just 10 of 7!

Weer een heel sterk beeld... de compositie, de atmosfeer en dan die patient met open ogen. Knap gezien.

The elves beg us to critique this one, yet the visceral response overwhelms the ability to provide a dispassionate technical and "aesthetic" critique. Perhaps that is the point. We tend to react on a personal level. "What if this were me?" "Why was there no general anesthesia provided?" "What do the looks gazing at the lens mean?"

 

I cannot offer the usual critique for the above reasons. This goes beyond the realm of landscapes, cathedrals, and even bullet ridden facades (another memorable photojournalistic POTW example from last year, if I recall).

 

The only critique I will provide is this: it was captured at an oportune moment, and provides a glimpse into the reality of the spartan operating theater. The timing is perfect in that we see two polar opposite views: one from the patient, one from a presumed attending physician. There is a symphony of sadness being played out here. One senses that everything is under control, except for the pain that must be experienced by the victim. Dark, yet with warmth and caring, and one can sense the tension on the faces of the surgery team as they work with complete concentration during an adverse condition, one which is likely to be the norm for them.

 

Good choice, elves.

This is a great photo document. Of course the eye of the victim makes the photo ! But You have to be there and clicking on the right moment.

Great work, defenitely worth becoming photo of the week.

...is the question that all such photos beg. In this case there is

no possible answer, apart from '...because I was there' -- unless

the result is profoundly eloquent, insufficient justification for a

monstrous invasion of privacy.

 

This type of picture is unusual enough for PN perhaps, yet usual

enough for contemporary war-zone photojournalism to be

classifiable as a type; the 'anguished victim in surgery'. And

within the particular genre this isn't a notable example, on

technical, compositonal or story-telling (photojournalism)

grounds. In terms of the latter criterion, for example, we have no

reason to believe the subject is a "War victim" other than the

photographer's caption; a singular lack of visual evidence vitiates

the claim, even if, as a matter of goodwill, we wish to extend our

credulity to the photographer.

 

There are several more powerful, and persuasive images in the

portfolio. Fair enough -- the purpose of POW is to provoke

discussion. Lest we forget.

War pictures don't get any better (or worse) than this. Perfect timing on the shutter makes this photo a classic.

I think this is an excellent photo, especially the timing of the shot. For me, if the person the left is not in the immediate foreground, the image is not nearly so effective. I would like to know more about the context of the shot - where, who, etc.

 

Excellent choice for POW.

Congratulations to the photographer and to the elves for selecting it. One can imagine a list of features others might wish for in order to bring this picture into line with what stands for typical PN gallery requirements. A simpler, less cluttered composition, less distraction from the surgeon passing left across the camera, better lighting perhaps. But all those things are surely out the window. This isnt suburbian wall decoration. One has to view the moment for what it represents and allow it to course its way to that emotive button marked pity attached to the back of the brain. This picture deserves an award for the way it does that through the precision of its timing in this setting.

 

That said, perhaps these days the brain is a little overly sensitive in such nether regions. And thats probably not a bad thing either. Because whilst the displayed conditions wouldnt pass as state of the art, nonetheless, our victim has the attention of seven medics on hand or near by and an eighth on his way out. All kitted out. Ready, willing and able to offer him treatment. And are those eyes so dreadfully anguished? If one allowed the enquiring part of the brain to have a tussle with the button marked pity, one might not be entirely persuaded that this photograph, as cleverly produced as it surely is, truly represents all the atrocities of war. Compared to the picture that truly represents all the atrocities of war, Id say this one was on the pretty side.

Wow, I disagree with many of the comments preceding mine, except that I agree this is a good shot, although not one free of error.

 

Frist of all, I don't see anything within the four borders of this image that tell me this is a war photo. Nothing at all. No guns. No uniforms. No hand grenades or tanks. Nothing. What am I missing?

 

Second, the foreground "surgeon on the move" is probably a scrub nurse, or an ER technician. The surgeon is most likely the older man in the middle, whose hands are burned out by overexposure, and who is actually doing the surgical work. As far as I can see, everyone else is standing around watching the surgeon or looking at the photographer.

 

I think the picture has emotional appeal, but is hardly the class act put forth as "a single frame [that tells of] all the atrocity of wars." The composition, including the figure on the edge, and the eye contact of the patient, is the best trait, but the extras in this picture tend to water down the drama with their inactivity.

This has probably gone too far with the poor man helplessy looking at the camera while probably thinking "can't this guy find a real job like anyone else?" I have seen other pictures of poor people and war wich, while being as strong, respect much more the dignity of the subjects.

 

My little medical knowledge makes me think that at least the guy is being cured for some minor wound, and who knows maybe he got a few dollars for the picture as well.

 

Simone

Really good to see a photojournal shot chosen. I guess it's all in the eyes and the two sets of eyes in this are really terrific. A very powerful shot. Well done and well chosen

choice to go for black and white makes it clean ... too clean IMO for the said subject... probably the colored version would have been harder... looks like a joke set up for me... the tilt of the picture, the smiling (?) eyes of the foreground character unfocus, the guy's faces lying on the table does not look much suffering but more interested by the camera, the cornered black eyes of the black nurse,... does nt fit the title... african version of m.a.s.h. may be... or am I totally wrong?!

Yes, this is a powerful photo that, as pointed out earlier, is dependent of the eyes of the patient. I also shot pictures in theathre quite often becuase of my day job, and I must say that it is a difficult light to master - especially with digital cameras. I like the composition, wich I find OK for a journalistic shot, and I admire the timing of the shot. But I do think that its a bit flat, maybe because of bad BW conversion? Working with a RAW-file ( or Nikons equvivalent ) there might be a possibility to take this pic a bit further. Anyway - congrats for the POW!!!

 

Regards

Peter

I'm with you, Jacques. As Monty Python would say, it looks like a flesh wound, nothing serious as there are no hints of fright in the patient's eyes.

 

I think the impact of this image could be heightened by pressing the midtones into the deeper regions, which would accentuate the surgical activity to a degree. The entire image was adjusted for density without burning. If I could have brought out more detail from the surgeon's hands, I would have, but there was nothing there. The face of the patient, and the face of the "surgeon on the move" were dodged a little. The eyes of the patient were selectively dodged with a nod to W Eugene Smith.

The previous image may be too dark due to the density gain my images experience on upload. This one should be more the way I imagined.

What a great shot! It stands as proof to those of us that believe photography is at its best when it is recording the human existance. I'll take this over the "Photoshopped" faux water-color shots we're being swamped with these days.

I examined the picture without first reading anything about it and I must confess that nothing about a war came to mind for me either. Not that it matters, but there are other concerns. From a formal/compositional perspective, a big blurry object in the foreground is not something easy to make work and I find it detracting here. A step in and to the right, with vertical positioning of the camera may have improved the composition considerably. The "punchline" here is the patient with bulging eyes, but as things stand, it just takes too long to find him and, when you do, he's not taking up enough of the canvas or figuring in it centrally enough, especially considering the prominent and distracting role of our out-of-focus smiling-eye man.

The smaller the posted picture, the more i like it--mainly (I think) because it makes the out-of-focus guy seem less so. I wonder if a Leica could have made this all more convincing ;-)

Doug suggested a change in tone and light, that is one solution to make the shot more credible... I would suggest another one, to crop (amputate seemed the right wording here!) the left face, guy looking as if he was leaving the hopeless scene... while cutting a bit of the top to force concentration and add pressure from the low ceiling, and also removing the 'funny' eyes of the nurse and the forehead of the patient (that looks now not that interestde by the cam but more scarry being not able to see and check whatever happen behind the little curtain... what you say?

my message was cut before finishing...

and the patient looking as if he implored the photographer to witness and to tell him what the 'others' are doing to him...