©Pierre Terdjman, Shoot me I’m Irish.
The photo
This photo was taken by Pierre Terdjman in Londonderry, in 2009. Today, Ireland is reached by the recession of the economic crisis. But at the time of Bloody Sunday, it was not the same background, Ireland was shaken by a huge political crisis… a bloody war between catholics and protestants, Irish and English. This recent photo was shot during The Bloody Sunday Commemorative March in the Bogside in Londonderry. This picture could be useful to show how Irish are proud of themselves.
We can see that this picture is a large plan of the people walking. Thanks to the high-angle shot the road seems to be deeper. Terdjman uses the rule of thirds. The photo uses 3 main horizontal lines. First line: the foreground of the picture, there is a banner where we can read: “BLOODY SUNDAY THE DAY INNOCENCE DIED “ in upper cases and bold type.
Second line: the demonstrators. Third line: the background the landscape. But this square construction is (un)balanced by the askew view. It’s quite interesting. This is probably an effect the photograph wanted. There are 6 main perspectives lines joining in the vanishing point: in the middle of the demonstration , in the middle of the street, in the center of the picture. Demonstrators are walking peacefully in the street, holding thirteen white crosses, each one represents a victim, it’s look like a funeral procession.
The colors are cold, dark, mixed with different shades of grey. The chipper color is the Irish flag, orange white and green…the colours are may be voluntarily underexposed and quite washed out.
The picture is closed by a wall on the left, and at the top of it there are barbed wires, it shows that the place is not safe, and Irish must be protect by army. In front of all the people, at the right side we can see young children holding the symbolic white cross which is bigger than them. We can deduce that the young generations have to bear the weight of this tragedy.
Pierre Terdjman wants to show in the picture the pain of Irish people, and their solidarity with the family of the victims.
Brun Noémie, Tribouley Alice, Seconde euro, 2010, Lycée François Arago Perpignan
The Place
The Event…Bloody Sunday
On Sunday January 30th 1972, 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers during a civil rights march in the Bogside area.
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights association organized a pacific march, the wanted equal rights for protestants and catholic people. Hundreds of people were throw in jail by the Britannic army.
The organizers of the manifestation spoke with authorities to keep clear violence but the march coot and 28 unarmed persons be shooted, while 13 died. There are two versions of the event :
– Britannic say the parachutists fight back IRA gunfire.
-Demonstrators say the Britannic army shot people casually in the crowd.
This event sweeps a lot of terrorist attack by Irish people and English republicans change their mind about this war.
The photojournalist
Pierre Terdjman was born in 1972. This young photographer has been covering news events all around the world for clients such as famous news papers (Le Monde, The Observer, EPA…)
Since 2003 he has been working as a permanent stringer for the European Press Agency, he doesn’t hesitate to take risks in the most dangerous countries of the world: He has been in Afghanistan, Haiti, and Kenya …