The lifeless body of fifteen-year-old Fabienne Cherisma lies on the roof of a fallen building in downtown Port-au-Prince on January 19, 2010. Photo by Lucas Oleniuk / Toronto Star
Canadian photographer Lucas Oleniuk has been awarded a National Newspaper Award in Canada for his image of Fabienne Cherisma dead on a Port-au-Prince roof-top, one week after the Haiti Earthquake.
Eight weeks ago Paul Hansen won a national award in his home country of Sweden. In March, I wrote about Hansen’s and other photographers’ awards for coverage of Fabienne’s death – Brouhaha in Sweden following Award to Paul Hansen for his Image of Fabienne Cherisma.
That’s now five photographers recognised for their images made within the space of an hour on a Tuesday afternoon.
Photo: Nathan Weber
ALSO IN THE ‘PHOTOGRAPHING FABIENNE’ SERIES
Part One: Fabienne Cherisma (Initial inquiries, Jan Grarup, Olivier Laban Mattei)
Part Two: More on Fabienne Cherisma (Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
Part Three: Furthermore on Fabienne Cherisma (Michael Mullady)
Part Four: Yet more on Fabienne Cherisma (Linsmier, Nathan Weber)
Part Five: Interview with Edward Linsmier
Part Six: Interview with Jan Grarup
Part Seven: Interview with Paul Hansen
Part Eight: Interview with Michael Winiarski
Part Nine: Interview with Nathan Weber
Part Ten: Interview with James Oatway
Part Eleven: Interview with Nick Kozak
Part Twelve: Two Months On (Winiarski/Hansen)
Reporter Rory Carroll Clarifies Some Details
Part Fourteen: Interview with Alon Skuy
Part Fifteen: Conclusions (04.08.2010)
Fabienne Cherisma’s Corpse Features at Perpignan (09.07.2010)
Brouhaha in Sweden following Award to Paul Hansen for his Image of Fabienne Cherisma (03.23.2011)
Prison Photography 
19 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 15, 2011 at 12:55 am
timfreh
A really interesting post. Thanks for posting it.
May 15, 2011 at 3:00 am
Steven
OK the 1st picture is great, but sorry the second one is awfull….
Seems like it a death contest 7 photographers…. 1 body…. who s the best shooter?
May 15, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Richard Anthony Morris
OK, it’s stuff like that that sometimes makes me question doing photography. In the second photo, there’s one guy presumably checking his setting whilst the one further back looks like he’s smiling, that’s awful.
May 15, 2011 at 12:35 pm
petebrook
The second image is the only image that has been published of the photographers from that day. The situation as a whole is very difficult to dissect and make sense of. I have tried my best to give an as comprehensive account of the photographers actions through interviews with the photographers. Too judge any photographer on Nathan Weber’s single frame is too harsh I think, but this is the slipperiness of photography. I am satisifed that a lot more information exists (in my 18 posts on Fabienne Cherisma’s death) on which we can base some conclusions.
May 15, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Bogdan
I’m sorry but the second photo looks just like a firing squad moments after an execution. I mean where the empathy for a gone human being that just lies there makes way for “getting the story” in whichever way possible ? Is she just a fair game piece of meat ? Can THIS particular story be told in a different way, a way that shows a hair more humanity ?
I do understand the job needs to be done but why do I feel so morally challenged by this second photo ?
May 15, 2011 at 6:41 pm
hello
Kindly consider giving up your prize money to the family if you can find them.. may win you a second award here http://www.thepgbphotoaward.com/about-the-photo-award/
May 15, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Photographing Fabienne « Iconic Photos
[…] ponders whether it would be possible to determine who fired the fatal shot. Equally interesting is Brook’s continuing coverage of the photographers’ fortunes after Haiti; three — James Oatway, Olivier Laban-Mattei […]
May 16, 2011 at 2:41 am
duckrabbitblog
Hi Pete,
I don’t understand why this is ‘very difficult to dissect and make sense of?’
Isn’t this what you would expect to see in this situation?
May 16, 2011 at 10:50 am
petebrook
Duck. I’d possibly *expect* to see this, but I am not certain that a single appreciation of the image is possible or appropriate in deciding how we feel about this.
May 16, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Paul
The 2nd shot isn’t ‘awful’ and if it makes you question ‘doing photography’ maybe you just don’t understand the shot – put seven photographers in any given situation and 95% of the time they’ll all see the same shot – from differing angles maybe, but essentially the same.
‘satisfied a lot more information exists’ – does it? should it? you don’t HAVE to have empathy for a subject to shoot/report it and telling yourself that something else exists just to allow it to sit better within yourself is pretty naive – sometimes it IS as simple as getting the story regardless of whether human suffering is involved or not.
May 16, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Bogdan
Paul, I had a really long reply lined up but then I realized on cynics such as yourself most of it would be lost.
Truth is without emphaty the human element is simply gone. You don’t need it, true but the result is then simple disaster porn, getting the “story” just a job and that begs the question : why get in harm’s way to do it?
May 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Shot To Death | Sanjiv Bhattacharya
[…] The excellent Prison Photography articles about Fabienne Cherisma […]
May 21, 2011 at 12:14 pm
John
The fact that they [photographers] moved the girl’s belongings and hand around so that the photo comes out “better” really rises questions about their professionalism in photojournalism.
May 24, 2011 at 2:37 am
El debate abierto sobre ética fotoperiodística at blog.alfonsorv.com
[…] día 14 de Mayo, leo en el blog Prison Photography que otra foto de la misma niña de Haití ha ganado otro premio. En éste caso el National […]
May 30, 2011 at 7:15 pm
petebrook
@John. No photographers moved the girls belongings.
June 7, 2011 at 2:12 am
Vlakverdeling « Sodemieter
[…] mee maar wat schetst mijn verbazing als blijkt dat die flutfotograaf van de Toronto Star er al eerder mee in de prijzen viel? Het ergste van alles is dat zijn foto nog beter is ook! De […]
June 22, 2011 at 12:52 am
Photographing Fabienne: Conclusions « Prison Photography
[…] to Paul Hansen for his Image of Fabienne Cherisma (Paul Hansen, Olivier Laban Mattei, James Oatway) Part Eighteen: A Photo of Fabienne Cherisma by Another Photographer Wins Another Award (Lucas […]
June 22, 2011 at 1:39 am
Jan Grarup Wins Leica Oskar Barnack Award; He and Juror Both Members of NOOR Images « Prison Photography
[…] to Paul Hansen for his Image of Fabienne Cherisma (Paul Hansen, Olivier Laban Mattei, James Oatway) Part Eighteen: A Photo of Fabienne Cherisma by Another Photographer Wins Another Award (Lucas […]
June 11, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Who forgot the onions? » My Learning Agreement for MA Photography
[…] P. (2011). A Photo of Fabienne Cherisma by Another Photographer Wins Another Award. Available at https://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/tag/fabienne-cherisma/ [Accessed 10th April […]