Triumph and Tragedy
World Press Photo Exhibit in Budapest
Neil Horner

The World Press Photo Exhibition provides an excellent opportunity for Budapest dwellers and visitors to view a diverse collection of award-winning photos from photojournalists around the world until November 17, 2002. The collection includes photos from the past year's news events, ranging from the world trade center collapse in New York to scientific research in Northern Norway. International news has become an increasingly important part of culture and the photographs of the past year's events provide a powerful opportunity to reflect on the world that surrounds us.
The exhibit is on display at the Néprajzi Ethnography Museum, facing the Hungarian Parliament. The exhibit is on a tour of North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The collection of images are remarkably more striking together than they would be flipping through the pages of a news magazine, and the exhibit is unique in its diversity of subjects. Award winners from a variety of categories are displayed, including scenes from conflict torn areas, scientific research, sport, the arts, and natural wonders.
Political conflicts are a major component of each year's exhibit, and this year display offers glimpses of the war in Afghanistan from a local perspective. A chilling series displays a Taliban fighter pleading for his life before being executed by Northern Alliance forces, opposite a display of some of the most powerful images of the world trade center attacks. Scenes from conflict in the Middle East and Africa are also exhibited, as well as natural tragedies such as last January's earthquake in Gujaral, India, which killed 30,000 people.

Any exhibit highlighting the world's news is bound to have a dark component, but World Press Photo is even more effective because it also offers glimpses of human achievement, from a fashion show in Dakar to scuba divers retrieving archeological treasures in Egypt. Images of Australian surf lifesavers battling the ocean are displayed a few steps from scenes of the bushfires that ravaged South East Australia earlier this year. Despite the disheartening recurrence of many of the world's conflicts in successive years, the collection has an air of progress and achievement, as well as impartiality that comes through the photojournalist's lens.
Every year since 1955, the Board of the World Press Photo foundation invited press photographers throughout the world to participate in the contest. This year, 4,171 photographers from 123 countries submitted 49,235 pictures, 200 of which are on display at the museum. This year 56% of the images were digital, double the previous year's total and confirming the new direction of photojournalism. In his introduction, World Press Photo Chairman aptly remarks, "In general such people are not sufficiently prized unlike footballers or B-grade celebrities. We have confused our priorities. Photographers should be recognized for their work."
The exhibit is a worthwhile reflection on the lives and events that shape our world and on the tragedies or triumphs fuelled by our actions.
November 2002

The World Press Photo Exhibition
Through November 17, 2002
Ethnography Museum,
1055 Budapest, Kossuth Ter 1
10am - 6 pm daily
Closed Mondays
Tel: 473-2400
info@neprajz.hu
www.neprajz.hu