Spencer Platt Wins World Press Photo Award
Platt's photo was taken Aug. 15, the first day of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. He had been in Lebanon about three weeks covering the war for Getty's wire service. While much of the press corps was based in Tyre, in the south of Lebanon, Platt says his editors directed him to stay in Beirut.
Platt had been up since 6 a.m. wandering the city with his translator. In the late afternoon, as he was preparing to return to his hotel to file his images, he spotted something red and flashy out of the corner of his eye. He spun around and quickly shot five frames of the passing convertible. Only one turned out. "On the second frame some guy in a white shirt walked in front of me and ruined it," Platt says.
Platt did not speak to the people in the car, but based on conversations with his translator he believes they are upper class Beirut residents, many of whom ventured out that day to inspect the damage to their city.
Platt sent the photo of the convertible to his editors, along with other shots from the day. "The desk said, 'Nice photo. Do you have anything wider?,'" Platt recalls. Only later, after the photo had been published in newspapers and Platt began receiving compliments, did he realize his picture was something out of the ordinary.
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Award-Winning Photo Puts Subjects On Defensive
Jad Maroun, 22, and his sisters Bissan, 29, and Tamara, 26, were not feeling all that fabulous on that sunny day in August. Despite the fact that they are Christian, they all lived in the Dahiye, which was once a Christian neighborhood. At the start of the war they had fled the bombing and settled in the Plaza Hotel in Hamra, a Sunni part of Beirut. It was there that they had met Noor Nasser, 21, a Muslim, and Liliane Nacouzi, 22, a Christian, who were working as waitresses in a sandwich shop in the hotel. They too were refugees from Beirut's Southern suburbs.
It was also where they ran into Lana El Khalil, 25, the owner of the Mini Cooper in Platt's picture. El Khalil, who calls herself an atheist, had given up her apartment in Hamra to make room for Shia refugees from the South and moved back to her parents' house. But she was hardly ever at home. When the war began, she was part of a sit-in in downtown Beirut to call attention to the Palestinian cause. As soon as the bombing started, she threw herself into relief work. She joined an NGO called Samidoun that was set up specifically to help the displaced people from the South. During the first days of the war, El Khalil helped evacuate people who were trapped in the Dahiye. Later on she would ferry food and medical supplies to the neighborhood. The little convertible came in handy.
But on August 15, two days into the ceasefire, it had served its purpose. When Jad and the others asked if they could borrow the Mini Cooper to go check on their houses in the Dahiye, El Khalil was happy to oblige them.
Six months later, they are all gathered in the apartment of Bissan's fiance in the Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh. Only Tamara, the blonde girl in the picture, is missing; she is getting ready for her engagement the next day. Jad, who was driving the car that day, admits that he had second thoughts about opening up the convertible. "I was worried that it would give people the wrong idea. But it was a hot day. There were five us in a tiny car and we all wanted to get a good look at what had happened to the neighborhood."
