World Vernissage Photo of The Year

Definitivamente no entiendo a los jurados de World Press Photo. Es la mejor definición que conseguí de la Foto del Año 2009, de Pietro Masturzo (AFP), tomada el 24 de junio en Terán, durante las protestas que siguieron a las elecciones en Irán (tres mujeres se suman al griterío nocturno desde una terraza). Más detalles aquí.

Estas son las razones de los conspicuos integrantes del jurado, más propias de un vernissage de galería que de un premio al fotoperiodismo:

Jury chair Ayperi Karabuda Ecer said: "The photo shows the beginning of something, the beginning of a huge story. It adds perspectives to news. It touches you both visually and emotionally, and my heart went out to it immediately."

Fellow juror Guy Tillim commented: "The difficulty in photographing conflict situations is one of portraying the parallel lives involved, of people going on with their lives. This picture has made a very good attempt at marrying these two elements, in giving the conflict a context –and that is a holy grail of photography. The photographer does it with a very beautiful image of an Iranian landscape, which would be worth looking at in itself. But it also arouses our curiosity about the woman shouting - incorporating this moment, the importance of this historical event. It represents a very honest and successful attempt at taking forward our vocabulary of showing things."

Juror Kate Edwards said: "The photo has a powerful sense of atmosphere, tension, fear - but also of quietness and calm, and in this sense was a challenge as a choice. We were looking for an image that drew you in, took you deeper, made you think more –not just about showing what we already know, but something that asks more of us."

Es una foto oscura de unas cuantas casas, en las que dos mujeres lejanas y movidas apenas se distinguen. No encuentro la tensión ni el comienzo de nada (no encuentro ni a las iraníes arriba del techo de una casa) ¿Elegiría esta foto para la portada del diario? ¿Iniciaría una historia con esta imagen?

Se me ocurre que los jurados de la WPP piensan en las fotos como medio único, separado del contexto, sin casi anclaje semántico. Las eligen para exponerlas bien grandes en las paredes de una galería y verlas tomando una copa de espumante.