Outrage ensues as a photo of a woman killed by Hamas wins a photo contest

A controversial photo of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli victim of the 7/10 massacre, won a photo competition at the Missouri School of Journalism [this is a hard picture to watch and may be triggering for sensitive viewers]. The competition is sponsored by Nikon and called “Team Picture Story of the Year”. The award caused an uproar due to ethical concerns, and now a petition to denounce the award is up on Chage.org. It’s only been a week since the petition started, and it already almost reached a 150,000 signs goal.

The “Team Picture Story of the Year” competition

The “Team Picture Story of the Year” is a photo competition in which photographers group together to create documentary photo catalogs. As such, the photo is only the first in a long series of hard-to-watch images. The other awarded catalogs also covered sensitive topics, mass shootings, and immigration; However, the catalog focused on the Gaza-Israel war showcases much more gruesome images.

Nissim Louk, Shani’s father, commented on the competition: “It’s good that the photo won the prize” In an interview with Daniel Adelson, he added, “I think it (the photo) will be good to explain what happened here in the future. If i’ll start crying and say how poor we are, what will come out of this? This is history. In 100 years, people will look at the photo and know the events that occurred here”.

Regardless of the father’s statement, many people still argue the image is unethical, even as a documentary piece. The petition to denounce the award got over 8000 new signs today alone, and it’s almost reached its 150,000 signs goal.

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