There have been 24" X 36" posters of provocative scenes hung all around Amsterdam for the past month or two advertising something called World Press Photo. Many of the photos are of a bare chested woman holding her arm up in some type of salute, which led me (and, I'm sure, others) wondering: what are they trying to sell with the topless lady?
After walking by the posters for the 50th or so time, I took a closer look. Apparently the World Press Photo Tour - which is an exhibition of the world's top photos, as judged by a committee of the World Press Photo Contest, which is based out of Amsterdam - was on display for two months in the Oude Kerk (old church) in the Red Light District. I'd never been to the Oude Kerk, it was a public holiday (White Monday), and I had my museum card. So I went on down.
The Church is the oldest building in Amsterdam (built in the 13th century), and it apparently was a used extensively before being alternatively abandoned, abused, and looted after the country became officially Protestant in the 16th Century. Restoration projects began in the middle of the 20th century, and they continue today. The church hosts things like the World Photo Press Tour while the renovations continue.
The photos themselves were some of the most moving, depressing, amazing images one would ever see. Images of 12 year old girls crying as they prepare for the arranged marriages. Of black rhinos with their horns surgically removed by animal right activists, so the entire animal would not be killed by poachers who want to sell the horn to people who believe it has medicinal properties. Photos of the Femen, the group of young Ukrainian women who protest the sex trade and other human rights abuses by public toplessness. A series of horrific images of the Japanese Tsunami. Several displays related to the Arab Spring, including the winner, which showed a woman in a full body Burka cradling her nearly naked son who had been tear gassed by the military.
The church is in the heart of the red light district, and the back of the church is surrounded with prostitute windows. As I kneeled on the ground taking pictures of the back of the church, I heard someone scream "You fucking asshole." I looked to my right, and there was a prostitute, whose skin and voice suggested that she was an immigrant from Sub-Saharan Africa, standing a few meters away from me. "You fucking asshole tourists and your fucking cameras, taking pictures of me. Get the fuck out of here before I break your fucking camera."
I calmly said, "I'm just taking pictures of the church."
She just repeated her previous comments.
Powerful photos, thanks Josh.
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