Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Eyes Have It

Wandering around on New Year's Day, when the streets of BsAs were barren of cars and people, a couple of us in our group spotted this gripping poster in the window of an office building. I snapped a quick shot from across the street, not thinking much of it. Turns out, this is yet another instance of people not wanting to forget an injustice. The eyes belong to photojournalist José Luis Cabezas. His story, as per the Committee to Protect Journalists: "In January 1997, the charred and handcuffed body of Argentine photographer José Luis Cabezas was found in a rental car in a resort city near Buenos Aires. He had been killed because he had managed to photograph a reclusive business tycoon reputed to be the head of the Argentine mafia." He had been beaten, tortured and shot, all for his "inconvenient" photographs. There is now a foundation in his name to prevent similar backlash in the future. Once we learned the back story, several of our group went back to photograph the poster and environment, and were denied. Told they weren't allowed. How very inconvenient.

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