The material of "asking price for corpse lifting" comes from the heroic sacrifice of college students in Jingzhou, Hubei Province to save drowning children, and the salvage company even charged exorbitant prices for salvaging corpses. However, the award of this news photo reflecting the incident has caused public controversy.
The good and evil of human nature can be seen at a glance in the photo: the body of a young man who died heroically to save a drowning child is in the water, and two middle-aged and old fishermen are bargaining with two cold ropes pulling the hero's body on board. Many people think that this photo should not win the prize, because it is disrespectful to show the hero's body again. Some netizens directly questioned how the family members of the deceased would feel when they saw this photo. If it is only to warn of a kind of "evil", is it necessary for us to do secondary harm to the relatives of the deceased? Emotionally speaking, many people don't agree that this photo won the prize because it is not "human".
But in fact, this is not the first time that the photo of "seeking a corpse" has won an award. 20 10 65438+23 10 month, 18 golden lens contest and the preliminary evaluation results of China's works in China Competition were announced, and "Seeking the corpse" won the best news photography award of the year; 20 10 On February 4th, 2009, the "2009 China Instant China Photography Competition (3rd)" sponsored by China Journalists Association was announced, and the asking price for corpse lifting won the first prize. Counting the national photo art exhibition, this is the third time that Finding the Body has won the prize. A news photo that caused great controversy won awards again and again. Are the judges really "cold-blooded"?
The photos won awards again and again, even the author Zhang Yi himself was quite surprised. After all, there are few opportunities to show that "negative things win prizes". No matter how strange the viewer's feelings are, this photo truly shows a kind of malady in the present society, and the pain is as direct as acupuncture. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a microcosm of the true image of a society. Why refuse it to win the prize? Can't a work that truly reflects reality, criticizes current abuses and points directly at ugly phenomena win an award? Does real art have to dance without the viewer's pure feelings?
To put it bluntly, our obsession with the award-winning photo of "seeking a corpse" may still lie in our failure to fully understand the relationship between art and society. We must face up to the fact that when art reflects the public's concern, sometimes it may not be able to take care of the feelings of all individuals. To some extent, such contradictions are inevitable. Generally speaking, the photo "Seeking the Body" tries to tell the viewer what is missing in the anomie environment and the unconscious "harm" to the protagonist. Should we be more tolerant?
We can understand the emotional entanglement of the audience in "Seeking a Body". However, it is somewhat arbitrary to resist the award of "seeking a corpse" on the grounds of "showing the ugliness of China people" or "hurting nothingness". People's Daily Online, Beijing, August 20th The Golden Lens Award, known as "China Jose", was presented on June 8th. The photo "Asking for a Body", which shocked public opinion, won the best photojournalism award this year by unanimous vote. Previously, this photo has won many awards, such as the best photojournalism award of the year, in the preliminary evaluation of China's works in Huasai. While everyone lamented the darkness of human nature revealed in this photo, Li Yuquan, director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Yangtze University, published an article on 17, questioning the authenticity of the photo of "seeking a corpse". In order to know the truth of the matter, People's Daily reporter contacted the two judges of the "Golden Lens" award for the first time, namely Luo Yonghong, director of the photography department of Jinghua Times, Li Ge, director of the photography department of People's Daily, and Hao Jianguo, a reporter who conducted a field investigation on the incident. Both judges said that before the review of "Seeking a Body", the jury had investigated the photo shooting process and authenticity, and found no problems. Li Ge admits that this photo can win the prize in full for two reasons. The first photo is intuitive, clear, accurate and very impactful. The news event shot in the second photo itself has a strong shock, so it was unanimously recognized by the jury. Regarding Li Yuquan's doubts about the authenticity of the photos, Li Ge said that there must be evidence and conclusive evidence. Hao Jianguo, a reporter who investigated and interviewed the matter after the incident, said that he confirmed through many information sources such as students from Yangtze University, winter swimmers and witnesses that the statement that the corpse fishermen "asked for the corpse" was overwhelming.
Looking closely at the article "Holding a corpse to talk about the price" published by Li Yuquan, Minister of Propaganda Department of Changjiang Daily, and the media reports, the questions about the photos of "Holding a corpse to talk about the price" mainly focus on four points:
1, media interpretation: people in white shirts at the bow negotiate with teachers and students.
Li Yuquan questioned: During the salvage process, the two ships worked together, and the man in white shirt held the body by the hand and waved his arm to command the people on the shore to cooperate with the salvage of the body.
Reporter Hao Jianguo's investigation: At the moment when the picture was frozen, the corpse fishermen "went on strike" on the grounds that the promised 36,000 yuan was not fully in place. A man named Wang Shouhai tied the salvaged Zhao Fang's body to his right hand with a rope (the knot of the rope in the picture is very clear), hooked another rope to a T-shirt with an iron hook, and dragged the body on the water for a long time instead of dragging it to the boat. At that time, the students on the shore cried and protested this behavior, but Wang Shouhai waved (please pay attention to Wang Shouhai's expression and gesture, and the 36,000 yuan promised by the school at that time had not been received in full). Wang Shouhai and others insulted the hero's body in this way, in order to arouse the sympathy and distress of the teachers and students on the shore, and get the 36,000 yuan corpse salvage fee they offered in time.
People's Daily reporter: "The man wearing a white shirt holding the body and waving his arm is directing the people on the shore to cooperate with the salvage of the body." This is Li Yuquan's misunderstanding. At that time, Zhao Fang's right hand and T-shirt had been fixed by two ropes respectively, and the other end of the rope was led by Wang Shouhai, who salvaged the body, and another man in a blue shirt, so it was completely possible to drag the body to the boat, and there was no problem of cooperation on the shore. The asking price for transporting corpses has aroused people's anger, that is, the corpse fishermen "charge exorbitant prices" and "don't fish corpses without money" (students misunderstand the corpse fishermen as "self-destruction" and the local police concluded that "fishing is stopped").
2. Interpretation of the picture: The man wearing a white shirt at the bow is surnamed Chen.
Question: It has been confirmed that the person who salvaged the body is not surnamed Chen, but called.
Reporter Hao Jianguo's investigation: Wang Shouhai, a farmer from Gongan County, Hubei Province, was employed by Chen Bo, the leader of "corpse salvage". The previous report was mistaken for "Chen Mou", which was corrected by Huashang Daily in time.
Jingzhou Municipal People's Government: Chen Bo's behavior of "Jingzhou Baling Salvage Co., Ltd." has constituted the crime of extortion, and the public security organ imposed an administrative detention on it for 15 days and imposed a fine of 1000 yuan.
People's Daily reporter: Chen Bo has been detained by the public security organs. If Li Yuquan said, why was Chen Bo detained?
3, picture interpretation: fishermen are asking for money.
Li Yuquan questioned: Fisherman Chen Kai said, "If we catch people, every boat can get 500 yuan every time. We didn't catch 200 yuan, and sometimes we even packed cigarettes. " It can be seen that if the price is negotiated, these people will not be engaged in salvage on board.
Reporter Hao Jianguo's investigation: According to the students of Yangtze University, winter swimmers and witnesses (the photographer Zhang Yi of the photo "Asking Price for Holding Bodies"), the fact is that after the corpse fishers arrived at the scene, regardless of the hero's life and death, regardless of the feelings of the teachers and students at the scene, they took advantage of the fire and demanded money, saying that they wanted12,000 yuan of corpses, and if the money was not in place, they would not want 65,438/kloc. However, the "asking price for carrying the corpse" has not been announced (the photo was first published in China Business Daily on 20 10, 165438+3 10).
Jingzhou Municipal People's Government: The agreement between Yangtze University and Jingzhou Baling Salvage Co., Ltd. is a civil act, but the words and deeds of Baling Company in the salvage process obviously violate social morality. Although the price of body salvage is not within the pricing range of the price department, Baling Company did not salvage the drowning students in time while knowing that they died bravely, especially when the salvage funds were not raised in place, which obviously violated social morality.
4. Some media questioned that the winner was "Zhang Yi" and was a pseudonym. The reporter confirmed that Zhang Yi is his real name. After Zhang Yi took this photo, due to various considerations, Jianghan Business Daily, where he worked, was not published. Zhang Yi first published a photo in the Chinese Business Daily in his own name, signed "Pearl Krabs" and signed it as a witness. Yoko, a journalist, was forced to make his identity public after winning numerous awards. Now he has left Jingzhou because of too much pressure in the local area.