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<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>SPIEGEL ONLINE -
February 28, 2007, 03:30 PM <br>
URL: <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,469070,00.html"
target="_blank">http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,469070,00.html</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h4 style='line-height:16.0pt'><b><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>CATERING TO A LEBANESE
CLICHÉ<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h4>
<h3><b><font size=4 color="#c11919" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:Verdana'>World Press Photo Mix-Up<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p class=spautorenzeile style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>By
Ulrike Putz in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><b><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black;font-weight:bold'>The
World Press Photo of the Year 2006 shows upscale young Lebanese men and women
visiting a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood like disaster tourists -- or at least
that's what everyone thought. Bissan Maroun, one of those featured in the
photograph, told SPIEGEL ONLINE the true story.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><img border=0 width=750
height=498 id="_x0000_i1047" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C75C2F.74A11300"
alt="This photo won the World Press Photo Award for 2006. The story behind the photo is more complex than appearances suggest."
align=middle><br>
</span></font><font size=1 color=gray face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.0pt;
font-family:Verdana;color:gray'>Getty Images- This photo won the World Press
Photo Award for 2006. The story behind the photo is more complex than
appearances suggest.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Bissan
Maroun got a first impression of what international publicity means when she
walked home from a cinema in her hometown of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Beirut</st1:City></st1:place> two weeks ago. Her mobile phone told
her she had missed a huge number of calls. Then it rang again. This time it was
her mother, who sounded hysterical: "Your picture is on all the TV
channels," she screamed. "My children are famous." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>It took a while before
Bissan realized what had happened: A snapshot showing the 29-year-old driving
through a suburb in southern <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>
in a convertible with her brother, her sister and two female friends had been
selected as World Press Photo of the Year 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>"I want them to
invite me to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Amsterdam</st1:place></st1:City>,
to the award ceremony," was Bissan's first reaction. Her dream could
actually come true -- the World Press Organization is currently deciding
whether to invite the five young people to the ceremony in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:place></st1:country-region>. It
would be a first -- and it might have something to do with a guilty conscience
about how the people were portrayed. Seldom has a war picture led to such
vilification. "At first everyone said: That must be those rich, chic
Lebanese visiting the poor neighborhood like a tourist attraction," Bissan
says. "But that's completely untrue."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>In fact the captions
accompanying the photo in the world's press -- even before it was elected photo
of the year -- were rarely sympathetic. Foreign commentators were incensed by
the skimpy T-shirts worn by the girls, arguing such apparel was out of place in
the conservative neighborhood. They commented on the disgusted expressions on
the faces of those in the car, saying those expressions only showed the rich
have no sympathy for ordinary people. And what about that car -- wasn't it the
most blatant provocation towards the neighborhood's low-income residents?
Bissam's acquaintances also began to whisper among themselves -- so much so,
that she called in sick at the bank where she works. When her picture was
awarded the World Press Photo Award, her boss advised her to make the true
story public.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>"We're from
Dahiye, from the suburb, ourselves," Bissan explains on a hot February
afternoon in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>.
She, her 22-year-old brother Jad and her 26-year-old sister Tamara fled the
neighborhood during the Israeli bombings. They stayed in a hotel in the safer
district of Hamra and did what most Lebanese did at the time. They waited. The
siblings met the other two women in the hotel, Noor Nasser and Lillane Nacouzi,
at the hotel. Both are employees of the Plaza Hotel and were allowed to stay in
vacant rooms during the war.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><b><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black;font-weight:bold'>"It
was so hot, and there were five of us in the small car"</span></font></b><font
size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>On Aug. 15, the day of
the ceasefire, Jad borrowed a friend's orange Mini Cooper. For weeks the
siblings had heard nothing about whether or not their apartment block was still
standing -- now that the fighting was over, they wanted to go and see for
themselves. Jad drove and Tamara rode shotgun, while Bissan squeezed in between
the two friends on the backseat, holding her camera phone ready. "We spoke
briefly about whether we should really open the roof," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
"But it was so hot, and there were five of us in the small car, so we
folded it back."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Bissan admits that, at
first glance, her excursion must look like a prime example of disaster tourism.
"But look at our faces. They clearly show how horrified we were, how shocked,"
she says. "We were not cheerful." Today she can only laugh at the
accusation that she and the other young women are dressed too salaciously.
"This is <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
We always dress this way," she says, adding that her clothes have never
caused her any trouble with conservative neighbors.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>It was about 1:00 p.m.
and the young people were just on their way to their apartment when the
photographer Spencer Platt spotted the orange convertible from the corner of
his eye. He told CNN that he spontaneously raised his camera and pressed the
shutter four or five times. Most of the pictures didn't turn out, he said,
because some one walked into them. He admitted that the award-winning picture
was the only one he could use. He never spoke to the five young people. Now he's
sorry his photo has caused them so much trouble, saying he never meant to use
it to make a political statement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:16.0pt'><b><font size=1 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black;
font-weight:bold'><!-- Vignette StoryServer 5.0 Thu Jan 04 09:10:52 2007 -->Catering
to a Lebanese cliché</span></font></b><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>When it was first
published, the photo caused a stir among war photographers. Many thought the
picture was just too good to be true. There were rumors that the picture had
been staged. The controversy continued when the photo received the World Press
Photo Award and appeared in the papers once again. Lebanese photographer and
jury member Samer Mohad vehemently opposed giving the award to Platt and spoke
of an "insult" to all press photographers who had "risked their
lives" reporting on the war in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>The strong reactions
prove that Platt has struck a nerve. He caters perfectly to a cliché about <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> that is
not entirely unjustified. In fact <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>
does see immensely wealthy people and extremely poor inhabitants sharing not
just the same country, but also the small area of a few square kilometers that
is <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>.
There really were rich people wearing expensive sunglasses -- mostly Christian
or Sunni -- who sat, hookah in hand, in popular bars above the city watching
the unloved Shiite neighborhoods go up in smoke.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>The trouble is that
Bissan and her companions don't belong to that group.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Bissan has only been
able to enjoy the photo's success since her story has appeared in a few
Lebanese newspapers. She has told journalists that her apartment was badly
damaged, with all the windows broken and the furniture crushed by shock waves
from the bombs. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Now she no longer gets
reproachful looks from customers at the bank where she works. They bring in
newspaper clippings with her picture instead. "My whole desk is full of
them," she says. Journalist friends have warned her that he coming weeks
will see her getting even more media attention. "But that will hopefully
be over by the summer," Bissan says. That's when she is planning to get
married -- quietly, and without too much publicity.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:16.0pt'><font
size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>
<hr size=1 width="100%" noshade color="#9d9da1" align=center>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:16.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2007<br>
All Rights Reserved<br>
Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH</span></font><font
size=1 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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