The New York Times Week in Review has a small but surprisingly human portrait of Gaza in the work of freelance photojournalist Katie Orlinsky.
You may note how Eitan Bronner can't resist trying to spin this into a "look, the siege isn't that bad--people are shopping!" story. But Ms. Orlinsky's words and photographs speak for themselves--particularly the final, devastating shot of pregnant widow Wesam Fahim Dardona in what looks to be her ruined, fire-blackened house. That photo should win a prize.
And, Bronner propaganda aside, Orlinsky has captured a particular, unique and ephemeral quality of Gaza, one that's difficult to explain to those who haven't been there: the way life goes on, somehow, in the shadow of war and siege; the way normalcy and even joy rub shoulders with appalling destruction; the constant back-and-forth pull between hope and annihilation, and what a miracle it is that the latter has not yet won.
I can't help thinking that showing Gazans as normal people who do normal things, like shop and go to the beach and go to school, is a step forward for the New York Times. And I don't think this story would have even run if not for the Freedom Flotilla and the spotlight it's shown on Gaza.
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