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After two gruelling days working an assembly line like photography studio, I have found renewed faith in the photography of children. Trying to avoid kitsch as much as possible, I worried our cooperation with Jerusalem’s Train Theatre might prove to be void of artistic merit, but boy was I wrong. Yes, many of the photos were nothing more than Jewish kids in Purim costumes smiling for mommy – but from time to time, when not pressed to fake-smile, something much deeper and profound emerged.

Following is the photo I liked most out of these two days of work. My friend Guy hinted that I might like this photo because on a subconscious level it reminds me of photographer Cindy Sherman’s work. What do you think?

Hagigit – Purim Spiel Still #9313 – 2009

Cindy Sherman – Untitled Film Still #21 – 1978

Eddie Adams – Saigon Execution – photograph – 1968 – Vietnam

Henry VIII’s Wives – Iconic Moments of the 20th Century – photograph – 2007 – UK

Mark Daughhetee – Hosed – photograph – 2004 – USA

Borf Brigade – The Consolation of Ruin – 2007 – USA

Mike Stimpson – photograph – 2007 – UK

Xiang Jing – Bang! – sculpture – 2002 – China

Amnesty International – print – 2005 – New Zealand

Dolk Lundgren – Weed Killer – graffiti – 2008 – Norway

Franck Réthoré – painting – 2007 – France

Kenyon Bajus – Execution – print – 2004 – USA

Krista Wortendyke – Iconic Recall – print – USA

Notes:

• The original photo received the Pulitzer Prize for ‘Spot News Photography’ in 1969 under the name ‘Saigon Execution’. Nowadays it is often captioned as ‘General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon’.
• For such an iconic photo and a well documented event, it is surprising that so many people cannot eloquently explain the context of this image, summarizing it to ‘a bad guy killing a good guy’. Please take a moment to learn more about the incident by clicking here and here.
• If you are aware of additional artworks derived from the original photo, please send details and links by leaving a comment or sending an email.
• If you enjoyed this post, please make sure you check back in a month or so, as additional artworks will be added.

The following was added after this post was first published.

minipliman – print – 2009 – Germany

Liu Jin – News – Wangfujing – photograph – 2001 – China