The repercussions of last year’s Arab spring are still ringing; Egypt still hasn’t settled and Syria is still in the grip of an unforgiving leader and a civil war. The picture showcase of A Year of Journalism and Conflict put on by Frontline and Sky News is possibly a bit premature if not poignant.
The year 2011 has been remarkable in bringing painful change and jubilation of which we are still seeing the repercussions. The array of emotion is reflected in the images which are arranged in something of a timeline of the year. TV screens punctuate the images and beam video of the tumultuous events.
This is of course a celebration of frontline journalism – the bravery of the journalists and the bluster of events, all the more real in being re-represented. The exhibition, put on in the cold grey Embankment Galleries of Somerset house, does its job. You get a real sense of history and significance of the people both in front and behind the camera.
Other images displayed in the Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, hail from Libya and somewhat surreally, from London. An unexpected juxtaposition which, to put it mediatorially, highlights the different nature and rationale of our local political violence to that of the Middle East. The centrality of violence to the very existence of the nation-state was unearthed and it’s brought into focus here. The exhibition runs until Feb. 5, 2012, and is well worth a visit.
For more information visit: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk
Ramis Cizer
