It is bad enough that the winner photos are devoid of balance. But what makes this entire enterprise a sham is that the award itself was set up for the purpose of propaganda.
It is called the "Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Prize." It was set up in 2009 by the head of the Carmignac fund, Edouard Carmignac. He chose the topic of the very first award given to be "The Gaza Strip."
Why? Because of the Israelis acting like Nazis, a theme that resonates so deeply with him! In his words,
Seen from Europe, it is not because the frightening reality of the Nazi concentration camps began on the soil of our continent, that we can now accept the reality of what has become in 60 years, with the radicalization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a genuine Palestinian internment camp at the gates of Israel.Can you believe it? Gaza is "virtually forgotten and abandoned by all!"
It is unacceptable for the victims of one of the most terrible tragedies of the century to remain virtually forgotten and abandoned by all.
So it must have been very hard for him to find applicants for this award. There must have been a paucity of photographers allowed in Gaza to document Israeli inhumanity and Nazi-like behavior, because, after all, it is a prison camp.
Luckily, they managed to scrape up 76 entries for this award. Must have been tough.
The winner of the award was Kai Wiedenhöfer, who is well known for the bias in his photos and photo descriptions from Gaza and the West Bank. For example, he photographed this scene in Qalqilya showing a fence over drainage pipes, as he laments how the town turned into a "ghetto":
But the reason for that fence is because Palestinian Arab terrorists crawled through that same pipe in order to infiltrate Israel and killed a 7-year old girl.
Wiedenhöfer's award-winning Gaza photographs concentrate on pictures of amputees staring into the camera. The poster of the exhibition features this photo:
Now, do Gazans use spent rockets as decorations in their homes? Or did the "photojournalist" decide that it would make a more aesthetically pleasing picture to ironically balance the flowers with a "Palestinians love life, Israelis love death" theme? How much reflects reality and how much hate?
It is truly insane that when any rich person can create an award to bash Israel, prominent judges (including a Time magazine reporter) will happily sign on, and a prestigious museum willingly uses its space as a vehicle for propaganda.
Read more at Philosemitism.
UPDATE: Elder of Lobby found this video of the "art": http://videos.arte.tv/en/videos/photographie_gaza_sous_l_oeil_de_kai_wiedenhoefer-3521142.html