pictures of the year award

Tanya Sneddon

http://www.poyi.org/63/NPOY/story01_01.php

This link goes to the picture that stopped my eagerly clicking finger and gave me pause as I stopped to explore this photograph and the feelings it conveys. Titled "Wave of Destruction," this photograph was taken by Barbara Davidson for the Dallas Morning News. In it, a little boy plays a plastic trumpet, which is literally the only personal possession he has left. He is standing in the ruins of his home, which was destroyed in a tsunami that his Sri Lanka. As I look at this picture, I feel pain. I feel the pain of the little boy, who is so naively concentrated on the (seemingly) only positive thing he has lest, and I feel pain as I sit comfortably here in my plush overstuffed chair and mourn for this boy and his hardship. I also think that I am naive because I had no idea the extent of the destruction caused by the Sri Lanka tsunami. This photograph is powerful for several reasons: one, it brings me to a place that I otherwise would not have gone. Two, it conveys a mood of destruction but of hope despite hardship. It is a candid shot of a little boy's day, where toys are still important and, in his case, serve as a brief release from the tragedy this boy and his family must be facing.

This photograph deserves a first place award for newspaper photograph of the year. It taught me, the reader, something that could only be fully appreciated through pictures, and with this photo, a news story would gain perspective and introspection into the life of a child in the wake of a horrible storm.