Spencer Platt
American and Getty Images photojournalist Spencer Platt, winner of World Press Photo of the Year 2006, describes the picture and how he took it.
I took the image of the young people driving in a red Mini through the devastation of Beirut after a long morning walking through rubble. I was documenting people returning to what was left of their homes. It had been a difficult day due to the tension between members of Hezbollah, who controlled this area of town, and the media who wanted to document this important story. I was lucky to have a terrific 'fixer' by the name of Wafa who, by being a Shiite, was able to get me into various parts of the city.
Only the previous day I had been running through those same streets, which were totally deserted due to the continual bombing by Israel. The contrast between the two days was both astonishing and indicative of the resilience of the Lebanese people.
World Press Photo of the Year: Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images.
Young Lebanese drive through devastated neighborhood of South Beirut, 15 August 2006.
On approaching a street packed with families in battered cars surveying the wreckage, I saw out of the corner of my eye the people in the convertible. I only had a few seconds to capture this particular moment so there was no time to focus or compose the subject.
I had no idea what was captured until I got back to my hotel room and looked at the disk on my computer. Once I had a moment to analyse the image, I realised just how unusual this tableau was, how unique yet universal in all of its contradictions and forms. We often think we know what war looks like, but it's not until we see imagery or reports first-hand that we realise the similarities with our own lives.
I attempted to capture a split second of life that can reveal to us the beauty and the multi-faceted nature of world events. Too often, one gets lost in the soupy noise that seems to increasingly encumber our world. Opinions and stereotypes are quickly made, yet moments of reflection are increasingly rare.
One of the most common reactions I receive to this image is 'this is Lebanon?' The rich and glamorous, while a significant part of Lebanon's past and present, somehow do not often fit neatly or comfortably into the story. Maybe it is because they look too much like us in their Western cars and clothes, or maybe it has to do with what we expect victims to look like.
I don't know these people personally. It's very possible that they had lost their homes or loved ones in the war that summer. But, what I am confident about is that the image of them asks us to question our assumptions of the Middle East and those victimised by war
