Pictures
of Longing - Pictures of Terror
Christina Rau Honours the Winner of the “UNICEF
– Photo of the Year” Competition
The American photographer Don
Bartletti is the winner of the “UNICEF – Photo
of the Year” international photo competition. His
photo shows a boy from Honduras on his way to the USA
– as a stowaway on the roof of a freight train.
Under the direction of Professor Klaus Honnef, the 6 member
jury also awarded a second and third prize, as well as
4 honourable mentions. With the support of GEO Magazine
and the Citibank, UNICEF presented this award for the
fourth time for photos of a high artistic standard which
especially vividly portray the living conditions of children
and their personalities. The UNICEF Patron, Christina
Rau, presented the award to Don Bartletti in Berlin. “The
UNICEF photo competition directs the attention to the
fates of children in poor and rich countries”, Christina
Rau said at the awards presentation. “Their pictures
show more than naked realities, they symbolize feelings
and social worlds: the longing for a home, desperation
amidst affluence, dignity and courage in the face of war
and terror.”
Enrique
is five when his mother leaves him. She wants to
go to the US to earn money. Eleven years long the
boy in Honduras waits for her return. Then he sets
out to look for her, alone, with no money, his life
in danger. An odyssey of over 19.000 kilometers
begins, riding on top of northbound freight trains.
The boy endures hunger, is chased by police and
by bandits. Enrique is one of thousands of children
who take off every year from Central America to
head up north. Only a few are lucky. Many keep trying
again and again. Photographer Don Bartletti travelled
with these children in the footsteps of Enrique
and documented their experiences.
Photographer: Don Bartletti,
USA
Los Angeles Times
Jonathan Rojo, 14, and his 9-year
old sister Yomara while dining in a fast-food restaurant
in the state of Texas, USA. Both suffer from hepatitis,
resulting from too much fat in their diet. Excessive portions
of food are standard in American restaurants. Jonathan
also suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea which is caused
by the excess flesh around his throat which obstructs
his airways, causing a chronic lack of oxygen that can
damage the heart and the lungs. He sleeps with a BIPAP
machine to push air into his lungs. Fat, the 3 letter
F-word, source of so much despair and self-loathing in
a world which worships slenderness. Obesity has so far
been debated largely as an aesthetic issue, but now it
is set to become the number one killer in the United States.
The World Health Organisation has called obesity a gobal
epidemic, and children are in the front line. Two thirds
of Americans are overweight or obese. Experts are especially
concerned about the soaring obesity rates in children
– the supersize generation, Generation XL. Life
expectancy in children who develop a certain type of diabetes
before the age of 15 is reduced by 27 years, and cynices
predict for the first time ever that a generation of children
may be outlived by their parents.
Photographer:
Felicia Webb, Great Britain
IPG (Independent Photographers’ Group)
This girl is 12 years old. She
was ten when the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) from Sierra Leone crosssed the border into Liberia
and attacked the village in which she lived. They killed
her parents and abducted her. The soldiers used children
and young women as cooks, porters, and sex slaves. The
scars on the girl's body were caused by burns from acid
liquids. She was caught trying to escape and was doused
with acid in order to make an example of her. The long-lasting
conflict in Sierra Leone finally ended early 2002 and
left thousands of women severely traumatized. Since only
little help is available to them, these women have formed
self-help groups to deal with their experiences.
