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Arresting Images

Aired February 20, 2004 - 10:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Every picture tells a story. Some even convey the drama of everyday life, but only a select few capture both history and pathos in a single photographic image. Every year, the best are selected for the World Press Photo Awards. This year's winners have now been chosen and here to tell us about them is Elizabeth Biondi, the visuals editor at "The New Yorker Magazine." She chaired the jury at this year's contest.
Good morning to you, Elizabeth. Thank you for being with us.

How many photographs did you actually have to sit through?

ELIZABETH BIONDI, CHMN., WORLD PRESS PHOTO CONTEST JURY: Well, actually, 63,000, would you believe that.

SAVIDGE: That's an amazing number. And we want to point out, this is the one that won overall, is that correct. This was the World Press Photo.

BIONDI: This is the one we pulled out in the end, and that stayed with us. You know, judging is sort of a long process. You look at a lot of things, and then you narrow it down, and eventually you come up, well, hopefully, with a photo that everyone in the jury is excited about and believes in.

And this one really touched us, because, obviously, we looked at a lot pictures from Iraq, and there were a lot of pictures that showed violence, and death and killing. And this one here, it's a father, it's a prisoner of war with his son that he had to be put in a detention camp and put on the hood. And you know, when you look at this, you can imagine what he feels like. He's holding his son, and he's comforting his son, and the military actually allowed him to be with his child, and in the beginning his hands were bound, and now they're unbounded, so there was some humanity on all sides.

But we were all touched how this father cares for his child, and you know, war turns life upside down.

SAVIDGE: You capture all of this. I mean, even with a simple photo, you could tell, yes, his hands are not bound. To me, who's been there, that's unusual. Obviously, there was a concession made to him, and yet there is the poignant power of a father who cannot see holding on to his son behind barbed wire. It just really is emotional.

BIONDI: Yes, I mean having that sandbag over his face, which is regulation, I mean, of course disorients him or disorients people, but yet you see how he cares for his child.

SAVIDGE: But there's so many of them, I want to keep moving, Elizabeth, so we can show more. This was the first prize in general news singles, and it's a woman warns her husband in Gaza, and it is almost a religious-type scene as you look at this, the lighting, the clothing that people are wearing, and of course the emotion.

BIONDI: Absolutely, and we in the jury refer to the picture as the "Madonna" picture, and we were also touched by the emotion, and it reminded us of paintings, and you know, there is a quiet part to pictures of war, and the violent, cruel -- pictures that show violence and cruelty, so this one was, went right to our heart and stayed with us.

SAVIDGE: Another one we've got here, equally powerful and emotional, a father carries his sons to be buried after the earthquake there in Bam. Is it the emotion that you look for? Is that the quality that speaks to you as a judge?

BIONDI: I think, you know, I can only talk about myself. Certainly it does for myself. But our particular jury, I think we were very much touched by these emotions, and when you hear 25,000 people killed, it's a picture of an individual, the father with his two dead sons, whom he is about to bury, in fact, is really what touches us, and I think that's why we chose this particular photograph.

SAVIDGE: First prize contemporary issue stories. This was an AIDS village from China here, and again, does the quality of the photograph, the scientific stuff that comes in play, lighting, how the picture is framed, is that part of the judging, or is it purely based upon what is the feeling I get from this photo, how it moves?

BIONDI: You know, there's also an interesting story to this. It's taken by a Chinese photographer, and it's an AIDS village that's been infected by giving blood to -- it's a very poor village. It's, again, the emotion that touched us, and of course, the story as well. I mean, pictures are about content as well as aesthetic judgments that we're making about it, but it touched us, because of that. And actually, we gave the entire story first prize because it was such an incredible story.

SAVIDGE: Another one here, Liberia, mass grave.

BIONDI: Now this one particularly, I think, it's sort of a very, very quiet photo, and it touches us, but there's actually a beauty to it as well as a horrible story, and you know, pictures can touch us in many ways. So this one here is one that I particularly was happy to see win a prize, because we've seen so many very, very violent pictures in Liberia, and it's been a horrible war, and there was a photograph where a head had been cut off, and I think this quiet picture very much makes its own point as well without showing any blood of any of the acute violence.

SAVIDGE: You're right, Elizabeth Biondi, thank you very much for joining thus morning. BIONDI: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: I envy the chance you got to look at so many wonderful photographs. But I also have to tell you, many of them move to you tears.

BIONDI: Well, thank you, I'm happy to be here.

SAVIDGE: Have a good weekend.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 20, 2004 - 10:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Every picture tells a story. Some even convey the drama of everyday life, but only a select few capture both history and pathos in a single photographic image. Every year, the best are selected for the World Press Photo Awards. This year's winners have now been chosen and here to tell us about them is Elizabeth Biondi, the visuals editor at "The New Yorker Magazine." She chaired the jury at this year's contest.
Good morning to you, Elizabeth. Thank you for being with us.

How many photographs did you actually have to sit through?

ELIZABETH BIONDI, CHMN., WORLD PRESS PHOTO CONTEST JURY: Well, actually, 63,000, would you believe that.

SAVIDGE: That's an amazing number. And we want to point out, this is the one that won overall, is that correct. This was the World Press Photo.

BIONDI: This is the one we pulled out in the end, and that stayed with us. You know, judging is sort of a long process. You look at a lot of things, and then you narrow it down, and eventually you come up, well, hopefully, with a photo that everyone in the jury is excited about and believes in.

And this one really touched us, because, obviously, we looked at a lot pictures from Iraq, and there were a lot of pictures that showed violence, and death and killing. And this one here, it's a father, it's a prisoner of war with his son that he had to be put in a detention camp and put on the hood. And you know, when you look at this, you can imagine what he feels like. He's holding his son, and he's comforting his son, and the military actually allowed him to be with his child, and in the beginning his hands were bound, and now they're unbounded, so there was some humanity on all sides.

But we were all touched how this father cares for his child, and you know, war turns life upside down.

SAVIDGE: You capture all of this. I mean, even with a simple photo, you could tell, yes, his hands are not bound. To me, who's been there, that's unusual. Obviously, there was a concession made to him, and yet there is the poignant power of a father who cannot see holding on to his son behind barbed wire. It just really is emotional.

BIONDI: Yes, I mean having that sandbag over his face, which is regulation, I mean, of course disorients him or disorients people, but yet you see how he cares for his child.

SAVIDGE: But there's so many of them, I want to keep moving, Elizabeth, so we can show more. This was the first prize in general news singles, and it's a woman warns her husband in Gaza, and it is almost a religious-type scene as you look at this, the lighting, the clothing that people are wearing, and of course the emotion.

BIONDI: Absolutely, and we in the jury refer to the picture as the "Madonna" picture, and we were also touched by the emotion, and it reminded us of paintings, and you know, there is a quiet part to pictures of war, and the violent, cruel -- pictures that show violence and cruelty, so this one was, went right to our heart and stayed with us.

SAVIDGE: Another one we've got here, equally powerful and emotional, a father carries his sons to be buried after the earthquake there in Bam. Is it the emotion that you look for? Is that the quality that speaks to you as a judge?

BIONDI: I think, you know, I can only talk about myself. Certainly it does for myself. But our particular jury, I think we were very much touched by these emotions, and when you hear 25,000 people killed, it's a picture of an individual, the father with his two dead sons, whom he is about to bury, in fact, is really what touches us, and I think that's why we chose this particular photograph.

SAVIDGE: First prize contemporary issue stories. This was an AIDS village from China here, and again, does the quality of the photograph, the scientific stuff that comes in play, lighting, how the picture is framed, is that part of the judging, or is it purely based upon what is the feeling I get from this photo, how it moves?

BIONDI: You know, there's also an interesting story to this. It's taken by a Chinese photographer, and it's an AIDS village that's been infected by giving blood to -- it's a very poor village. It's, again, the emotion that touched us, and of course, the story as well. I mean, pictures are about content as well as aesthetic judgments that we're making about it, but it touched us, because of that. And actually, we gave the entire story first prize because it was such an incredible story.

SAVIDGE: Another one here, Liberia, mass grave.

BIONDI: Now this one particularly, I think, it's sort of a very, very quiet photo, and it touches us, but there's actually a beauty to it as well as a horrible story, and you know, pictures can touch us in many ways. So this one here is one that I particularly was happy to see win a prize, because we've seen so many very, very violent pictures in Liberia, and it's been a horrible war, and there was a photograph where a head had been cut off, and I think this quiet picture very much makes its own point as well without showing any blood of any of the acute violence.

SAVIDGE: You're right, Elizabeth Biondi, thank you very much for joining thus morning. BIONDI: You're welcome.

SAVIDGE: I envy the chance you got to look at so many wonderful photographs. But I also have to tell you, many of them move to you tears.

BIONDI: Well, thank you, I'm happy to be here.

SAVIDGE: Have a good weekend.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com