Embora já conhecesse as fotografias, acabei por deixar para o último dia a visita ao CCB para ver a World Press Photo 2004, a exposição de fotojornalismo mais importante a nível mundial.

Este ano, claramente marcada (mais uma vez) pelas guerras, e principalmente pelas suas vítimas.

São imagens que nos entram todos os dias em casa, e que por isso se tornam vulgares aos nossos olhos.

Nunca podem é deixar-nos indiferentes, os momentos que captam o horror, o sangue, a morte! E isto, só na fotografia perdura!

Na impossibilidade de fazer um álbum, pela sua previsível extensão, deixo aqui alguns registos representativos de acontecimentos marcantes, como a magnífica foto de Blair e Bush, curiosamente tirada na véspera da entrada das tropas aliadas em Bagdad.

pc: deixei por traduzir as legendas, que de algum modo se tornam desnecessárias.

Lu Guang, China

First prize: Contemporary issues – stories

In the mid-1990s, poor peasants in Henan province in eastern China sold their blood for 50 yuan a pint, enough to buy two bags of fertilizer. As a result of unsafe procedures, large numbers were infected with the HIV virus. In some villages up to 40 per cent of the inhabitants are seropositive, but for a long time have been isolated from care. Organized help from local health authorities is getting underway, but many people do not have the money to go to hospital and are cared for by family and friends. Some families have sold almost everything valuable in their home to help meet expenses.

Jean-Marc Bouju, France

World press photograph of the year

An Iraqi man comforts his four-year-old son at a holding center for prisoners of war, in the base camp of the US Army 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf, southern Iraq, on March 31. The boy had become terrified when, according to orders, his father was hooded and handcuffed. A US soldier later severed the plastic handcuffs so that the man could comfort his child. Hoods were placed over detainees’ heads because they were quicker to apply than blindfolds. The military said the bags were used to disorientate prisoners and to protect their identities. It is not known what happened to the man or his son.

Nick Danziger, UK

First prize: Portraits – singles

US president George W. Bush and British premier Tony Blair make eye contact in one of the few moments they did not have aides at their sides, in Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland, on April 8, a day before American troops entered Baghdad. The coalition that conducted the air and land attack on Iraq the previous month comprised almost entirely British and American forces. Britain’s support for the American-led operation had caused a rift with other European Union countries, most notably Germany and France.

Carolyn Cole, USA

Third prize: People in the news – singles

Bodies are placed in a mass grave in Liberia at the beginning of August, on the day that peacekeeping forces arrived. Civil conflict had wracked Liberia for more than a decade, claiming up to 250,000 lives, and leading to half a million internally displaced people and around 320,000 in exile. In August, Nigerian peacekeepers arrived, followed by US troops. President Charles Taylor left the country, and an interim administration was set up from October under Gyude Bryant. US troops later withdrew, and the UN launched a major peacekeeping mission, beginning to disarm former combatants.

Noël Quidu, France

First prize: Spot news – stories

Liberia has been wracked by on-off civil war since the 1980s. In March 2003, rebels had advanced to within 10 kilometers of the capital Monrovia, and by July fighting had intensified and government and rebel militia were battling for control of the city. After intervention of UN and US forces in August, rebels signed a peace accord and President Charles Taylor left the country.