Arko Datta

Arko Datta's tsunami photograph, Cuddalore, India, December 28, 2004 Two days after the undersea earthquake and tsunami, Datta photographed a woman grieving next to the body of a relative, wailing on the ground with her palms facing the heavens. It was named World Press Photo of the Year, and a juror called it graphic, historical and starkly emotional. Shown here, instead, are relief supplies reaching a tsunami-hit village in Cuddalore. Most images of that disaster showed water and wreckage on a vast scale. This one fixed attention on Tamil Nadu's fishing communities, among the worst hit in India, and on one person's loss. The frame belongs to the mourner rather than the dead, which is why it can still be taught with respect.