Shani Louk

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This is how Shani Louk's family asked for her to be remembered. Smiling and alive.

The biggest photojournalism competition in the world decided to trample on the family's wishes in favor of giving a photo of Shani's mutilated body a prestigious award. She wasn't even named in the caption.

Among the photographers honoured is Ali Mahmud, the AP freelancer who came under fire for logging photos during the early hours of October 7th, indicating previous knowledge of Hamas's brutal attack.

Photos showing violence and death can be newsworthy or important when they humanize the dead or galvanize the public. The "winning" photo does neither; it only further dehumanizes Shani, retraumatizes her family, and legitimizes Hamas's actions under the guise of journalistic neutrality.

No one should be rewarded on the backs of murdered women.

Rest in power Shani Louk, we'll remember you as the beautiful soul you were 💜

As for Ali Mahmud, it beggars belief that he is being celebrated for taking the photo of murder-rapist-terrorists with the brutalized and contorted body of Shani.

Seems to me he should be going to jail, not getting a prize.

The nepalm girl is Phan Thi Kim Phuc and she is alive and well. That photo was also a force for good because the world was so shocked, it started the end of the Vietnam war.

That photograph showing Shani's broken, brutalised dead body can in no way be compared and shame on the poster who tried. Plus, it is very doubtful the photographer who snapped Phan Thi was collaborating with her attackers

And yes, meant to say, the photo of poor Shani was more of a call to arms, not a cry for peace. Huge difference

Desertrose - this is of course a public forum and you are free to post what you like within MN guidelines. But your comments are pretty tone deaf on this thread and I can't help feeling that a decent person would realise that and request that their comments be deleted.

That’s a lovely pic of Shani. Let’s hope it achieves a wide circulation.

I am a decent person and I don't need to be reminded of MN guidelines, thank you. You and others would do well however to be reminded that its against those guidelines to attack other posters.

This is a discussion forum. If you are not open to discussion then it’s perhaps you who shouldn’t participate.

I opened this thread with a bit of trepidation because of the context Shani Louk is usually mentioned in. Thank you for this post. I've read quite a few articles by her family talking about her and she was clearly a lovely person. RIP Shani

I haven't attacked anyone and I was just giving my opinion, which I stand by.

You called me tone deaf and implied I have no decency for not requesting my comments be deleted. That felt like an attack to me.

You’re entitled to your opinion as I am to mine so I’ll leave it there.

@Desertrose2023 yes, your post comes across as tone deaf. Also, you need to read the article linked by @AliceA2021 which puts an entirely different spin on the whole bringing light to her tragic death idea.

I read the article. It’s in an Israeli newspaper and full of conjecture regarding the complicity of the photographer.

I’ve never tried to justify the behaviour captured in the image, or to even to speak up for the photographer. If the photographer is proven guilty of participation in anything then he should be punished. The only point I’ve tried to make here is that sometimes horrific images become iconic and deserve to be recognized because they provide visual testimony of an incident or event.

there are a lot of other defining - and equally horrific - images of Palestinian suffering during this conflict. They are equally important in my view.

An alternative source is the NY post: nypost.com/2024/02/28/us-news/victims-of-hamas-massacres-sue-reuters-associated-press/amp/

To Shani Louk's family, it doesn't matter that 32,000 Palestinians were killed to their 1 daughter.

It's still agony, and to have to see your loved one in that state, brutalised - not forgetting that the pain is compounded by the fact that it was taken from within Hamas, not by her friends and community (as with Palestine).

There are more graphic images, released by Palestinians of other Palestinians for an entirely different motivation, yes. To show the horror they endured out of fellowship. If they're equally important, why not acknowledge pain and distress caused here?

If the accusations in the lawsuit are true, then wow. And even if not, the family are contactable, why would one not ask their permission, or at least be a bit more respectful and humanising by sharing her name?

Basically, if a Jewish photojournalist entered Gaza and won an award for photos of dead Palestinians with the Israeli army in the photo, would anyone be praising it as some kind of poignant artwork? I highly doubt it, that would be abhorrent and crude.

There are some amazing photos captured in war and tragedies, but the motivation matters, the families wishes matter, the presentation of the photo matters, and the affiliation of the photographer matters.

Basically, if a Jewish photojournalist entered Gaza and won an award for photos of dead Palestinians with the Israeli army in the photo, would anyone be praising it as some kind of poignant artwork? I highly doubt it, that would be abhorrent and crude.

100% this.

Some people truly have no shame or compassion.

The most respectful thing to do would be remember Shani Louk as her family wishes, rather than suggesting a photo of her death and treatment at the hands of terrorists might become iconic, which is horrendous.

May her memory be a blessing.

Totally agree. It's one of the worst things I've ever seen in the news in my 46 years.

There may come a time when people can look more academically at the photojournalism capturing the horrors of 7/10 and the ensuing conflict. That time is not today. The awards organisers should have respected that Shani's family wouldn't want this. Would they want a photo of their dead child celebrated in that way, so soon?

Shani, we will choose to see you as the lovely person you clearly were. That picture does not define you or the impact you have had on this world.

I have recently read this news article, in which Shani Louk's father defends the photograph, stating that, "This is one of the most important images of the last 50 years".

apple.news/ATR7YlpyKTdyj9Ktf_WqrQw

Thanks, @HotMess21 - I can't access it but if that's what her family want then of course we shouldn't override their wishes.

There are no words to respond to this.

You're right

A decent person would

@Scirocco Apologies, paywall. Article in full:

‘Shani Louk: Hamas victim’s father defends photo of body
Critics of an award-winning image from October 7 say it adds to the trauma. Louk’s family want it to be a piece of history.

The father of a German-Israeli woman who was murdered by Hamas has defended a decision to award a prestigious journalism prize to a photographer who took a picture of her lifeless body.
The photograph, taken by the Associated Press freelancer Ali Mahmud, depicted Shani Louk half-naked and prone as she was being driven away in the back of a white pick-up truck by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attacks in southern Israel.
It was part of a portfolio of images that resulted in the Associated Press being honoured with Team Picture Story of the Year, an annual award given out by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.

However, the awarding of the prize provoked disgust from some Jewish commentators and drew thousands of furious comments on social media.
Hen Mazzig, an Israeli author, wrote on Twitter/X that “the biggest photojournalism competition in the world decided to trample on the family’s wishes” by conferring the award to the Associated Press team.
“Photos showing violence and death can be newsworthy or important when they humanise the dead or galvanise the public,” Mazzig wrote. “The ‘winning’ photo does neither; it only further dehumanises Shani, retraumatises her family, and legitimises Hamas’s actions under the guise of journalistic neutrality.”
However, Nissim Louk, Shani’s father, pushed back on the criticism in an interview with the Israeli news outlet Ynet.

“This is one of the most important images of the last 50 years,” the grieving father said.
“These are the images that shape human memory. The Jew with raised hands. The paratroopers at the Western Wall. These are images that symbolise an era.”
He told Ynet that his daughter’s photo and video footage of 25-year-old Israeli woman Noa Argamani being abducted on the back of a motorcycle on October 7 were “symbols” of the invasion.
“I really think it has a purpose to inform the future,” he told Ynet. “If I start crying and say ‘poor us,’ what will come of it? This is history. In 100 years, they’ll look and know what happened here. I travel the world, and everyone immediately knows this is Shani.”

Shani Louk, 23, was at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7 when Hamas militants broke through the border separating Gaza from Israel. She was thought to have been kidnapped by the gunmen and taken alive to the strip, as others were massacred at the festival site.

However, a piece of her skull was subsequently found at the festival site, confirming that she had died. Her body has not been returned to her family.
About 1,200 Israelis were killed and 200 taken hostage by the Hamas terrorists in the October 7 attacks.
The ensuing war, now entering its sixth month, has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians according to the Hamas-run authorities, and led to a desperate humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s website, the team category award “recognises the collaborative effort of a photography staff covering a single topic or news story”.
Other photographs in the winning portfolio included images of destroyed or damaged buildings in Gaza, injured or dead Palestinians, and Israelis mourning at funerals or fleeing from rocket attacks.’

Bevan Hurley, New York
March 29 2024, The Times

Thank you for posting this.
this is the argument I was trying to make regarding the importance of the image and why it’s been recognized.

Agree 100%. This journalist should be in prison.

I despair of this world

If it's the family's wishes then that's different but she should be named any time the photo is used, ideally with the picture of her smiling and alive alongside.

Too many are content to dehumanize the victims (on both sides) and every time that photo is shown there needs to be an effort to do the opposite. To show Shani as she was, the full atrocity of what was done - the needless destruction of a life.

This. 💯 no comparison. Shame indeed.