BBC art critic Kelly Grovier selected 15 of the most striking photos of this year – including images of the riots in the US Capitol and a plane in Kabul – and compared them to iconic works of art.
one. COP speech 26, Tuvalu, November 2021
In his speech at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 26) in Glasgow, Simon Kofe , Foreign Minister of Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation, dressed in a suit and in front of a lectern, plunged into the sea to demonstrate how the rising oceans and The accelerated climate crisis threatens his country.
“We will not stand idly by,” emphasized Kofe, “while the water rises around us.”
The shocking image and her words made me remember a story of communities threatened by the waves of Jan Asselijn’s terrifying painting, “The Breach of the Saint Anthony ‘ s Dike near Amsterdam ”(The breach of the dike of San Antonio near Amsterdam).
The painting reconstructs the catastrophic tide that hit the Dutch coast in the early morning of March 5, 1651.
And it can also be compared with the work “The Flood” by 2011 by German digital artist Kota Ezawa, which is inspired by media images of sinking neighborhoods in America’s Deep South.
- The country that is preparing for its possible disappearance
two. Sculpture, Italy, 2020
An ingenious tweet that seeks to find (ironically) the origin of the lateral flow test (rapid covid exams) went viral on social networks in November.
The publication shows a group of sculptures from the first century villa of Tiberius in Sperlonga, Italy, which portrays the blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus.
According to legend, Ulysses finally manages to control Polyphemus (who had eaten several couples from the epic hero’s entourage) with “undiluted” wine before piercing his only eye with a sharp spear.
Anyone who has self-administered the lateral flow test and accidentally probed a little deeper than he required, may feel that Polyphemus had better luck.
3. US Air Force Plane, Kabul Airport, August 2021
When the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, the 15 August, a United States Air Force plane, bound for Qatar, was became the last hope of evacuation from the city for many Afghans.
Photos of hundreds of desperate people on plane C – 17 Globemaster III are among the most dramatic captured this year.
- The shocking image that shows to 640 People fleeing Kabul in a crowded US military plane
The agglomeration (estimated between 640 Y 830 adults and children) can be compared to the claustrophobic vision of the recent sculpture “ Angels Unawares “ ( Unsuspecting Angels ) by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz -a bronze ship about 20 feet high filled with displaced souls.
4. Astronauts, Israel, 2021
A pair of astronauts walk dressed in space suits during a training mission to Mars in the Ramon crater in the Negev desert in Israel.
This site served as a surreal retreat for six astronauts from Austria, Germany, Israel, Holland, Portugal and Spain, because it approximates the conditions they will face on Mars.
The photos did not appear to portray a site in our own solar system, but a solitary and luminous landscape in another metaphysical place like those imagined by the French artist Yves Tanguy.
5. Protesters, Scotland, November 2021
During the COP 26 last November, activists of the group Ocean Rebellion demonstrated in front of refineries and petrochemical centers in Grangemouth, Scotland.
Self-styled “Oil Heads” (Oil Heads), protesters used plastic jugs or cans to carry gasoline as masks while spitting fuel and throwing fake money to satirizing the behavior of investors and politicians who they claim are acting too slowly in their promise to end deforestation to 2030.
Viscerally effective image recalls a leitmotiv in the works of contemporary art by artists who draw attention to the impact of man on the environment.
As for example the oil painting O ”Oil Pool” from the series of 1970 by the late Japanese artist Noriyuki Haraguchi, to the most recent “Oil Spills” of 2003, by Ai Weiwei.
6. Diver, China, January 2020
In January, a woman was photographed launching from an ice plinth into a frozen lake in Shenyang, northeast Liaoning Province. China.
In the photo, she remains forever suspended. The heroic horizontality of her body rhymes with the measured section of the snowy road.
The The severity of the surroundings and the discomfort that awaits the swimmer make her fall as inconceivable as that of a similar one down a street from an urban ledge, a feat that French artist Yves Klein claimed to have done from a Parisian window in 1960 and that he called “Leap into de void”.
7. Girl, Gaza, May 2030
In the bloodiest escalation of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians since 2014, airstrikes unleashed by the former (in retaliation for a rocket fired by Hamas) destroyed a girl’s home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, on 24 May.
The image of the girl, barefoot among the rubble, looking at its shattered horizon, it’s heartbreaking.
The incongruity of a bunny stuffed animal in his hand that looks at the world upside down recalls the painting of 2003 “War” painting by 2003 “War”, by British artist Paula Rego, which in turn is based on a photo published by the press of a girl taken during the Iraq war.
In Rego’s stark vision, the rabbit, conventionally a symbol of innocence and rebirth in art history, is poignantly transformed into a menacing mask of anguish.
8. Lake, Serbia, 2021
The photo of a grotesque garbage glacier clogging the Lim river near the Serbian town of Priboj is astonishingly bleak.
The contradiction of the rubble in a pristine landscape recalls the haunting vision of the Cuban artist Tomás Sánchez, who reinvented the place of Christ’s crucifixion outside Jerusalem in his painting of 1994, “South of Calvary.”
With a landscape of unrecycled trash, Sánchez’s painting suggests that salvation is both a material work through the mundane mud and an arduous spiritual journey.
9. Child, Indonesia, 2021
An 8-year-old boy begs on the streets of Depok, Indonesia. His skin is covered by a toxic mixture of metallic paint and cooking oil that transforms his body into a kind of sculpture.
Aldi is part of a group known as “ Manusia Silver “ (silver men) who resort to this dangerous disguise to attract alms.
His glowing image amidst a stream of traffic on a congested city street is poignant.
For many children his age, robots are wonderful talismans, a theme that addresses the photo enhanced with ink and water “ Wonder Boy” Wonder Boy ”by 1971, by the Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi, who imagines a child merging with the magic of his toy robot.
In Paolozzi’s photo, the two dissolve in the same shimmering substance. The image of Aldi, however, tragically upsets his childhood.
10. Capitol Riot, USA, January 2021
Photos of supporters of Donald Trump clashing violently with the police of United States Capitol on January 6 shocked the world.
Pro-Trump intruders were protesting Joe Biden’s certification as president-elect.
It may come as a surprise to some that the image of Americans fighting is part of the very fabric of that space.
In the murals in the same room, behind the author of the photo, a sandstone relief sculpture by the Italian sculptor 18th century Enrico Causici represents the colonized or Daniel Boone engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a Native American. The shrunken body of another lies under his feet.
The aesthetic and moral merits of the work are likely to provoke a polarized opinion these days as well as the events of January 6.
11. Container ship Ever Given, Egypt, March 2021
When a colossal cargo ship got stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal in March of 2021, the world and global shipping traffic, stopped.
Traveling from China to the Netherlands, the ship Ever Given carried 20. 000 containers when jammed near the southern end of the canal on 23 March.
Photos of a tiny excavator that The attempt to free the huge ship inspired many funny memes that in turn recall famous and ridiculous miniature images, such as the 15th century “David vs Goliath” style illustration from the B ”Book of hours” of a anonymous Flemish illuminator known as “The Master of the Dresden Prayer Book” Book of hours ”Book of hours” by an anonymous Flemish illuminator known as “The Master of the Dresden Prayer Book” Dresden).
11. Child, Kenya, 2021
In November the winners of the Environmental Photographer contest of 2021.
In the Climate Action category, a photo of a child wearing an oxygen mask and connected to a respirator, whose power source is a plant in a pot next to it.
This is a powerful analysis of the consequences of environmental damage. “ The Last Breath “ (The Last Breath) by Kevin Ochieng Onyango was photographed in Nairobi, Kenya.
The image not only looks towards our uncertain future, but also towards the history of art, with influential works from the past.
The fragility and preciousness of the breath is reminiscent of Joseph Wright’s 18th century Derby masterpiece “Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump” which was carried out after the discovery of oxygen. by Joseph Priestley.
13. Painting, France, October 2021
The photo of French firefighters raising a fire blanket to protect one of the many Treasures of the Saint-Andre cathedral during a fire drill in Bordeaux, France, in October, is itself a work of art.
The painting was created by the 17th century Flemish master Jacob Jordaens and depicts a dying crucified Christ being wounded by long spears with sponges soaked in vinegar, in an increasingly thick gloom.
The stairs on the sides of the canvas are aligned with the logs of ascent and descent represented in the painting, and transform the work into a vision that is not entirely real or imaginary.
The logs connect us n with the past and the tradition of many works whose levels of meaning are measured along the ascending stairs.
A comparison is called “ Ladder of Divine Ascent “ (Staircase of the Divine Ascent, a late 12th century icon in the Monastery of Santa Catherine, Mount Sinai), which portrays the monks climbing towards Jesus.
Another is by the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois and her series of drawings “The Stairs”, through the which builds an ambiguous personal symbol, between precarious and positive.
14. Children, Ethiopia, July 2020
In July, a photo showed a group of children standing under a tree shrouded in mist in the site of a future Eritrean refugee camp, near Dabat village, northeast of Gondar city, Ethiopia.
The living refuge created by the leaves and their music imagined as a whisper reminded me of the Trees of life , a theme that has inspired from ancient Urartians, for whom the tree represented an important religious emblem, as well as the Viennese artist Gustav Klimt, who coils the branches of his poetic “Tree of Life” into symbolic spirals, with a spiritual engine that hums into eternity.
15. Health workers, India, October 2021
To celebrate the application in India of the billionth dose of vaccine against covid, four members of the nursing staff at Ramaiah Hospital in Bangalore posed in October imitating the goddess Durga , who is normally depicted with many arms, each wielding a weapon with which he skillfully defeats his enemies.
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
It is not the first time that Durga has been invoked, an important Hindu deity who is credited with fighting the forces of evil , during the pandemic.
One year earlier, in October 2020, images of a two-meter sculpture went viral etros of Durga, that the Indian artist Sanjib Basak had created with disposable injections and blister packs of expired medicinal strips.
Created with a pile of hospital waste – the garbage of discomfort and illness – Basak’s sculpture ended up becoming a hopeful work in the face of anguish and adversity.
Assam: Sanjib Basak, an artist from Dhubri has made an idol of Goddess Durga by using expired medicines.
He says, “This year too, I’ve tried to make a unique idol. Since everyone is thinking about #COVID 19 treatment, I decided to make the idol using medicines. ” (23. 10. 2020) pic.twitter.com/zcrZOkdtKm— ANI (@ANI) October 24, 2020
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You can read this article in English here.
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