A woman sombrely holds her hand over her parted lips. From her pink, glistening eyes, a single stream of tears slowly makes its way down her cheek; sorrow is the only word to describe her expresssion.   

It's amazing what a picture can do.

Walking around the World Press Photo exhibit at the BCE Place, one can almost touch the circulating emotion.

Passersby are stopped in their tracks because they see a little boy wailing in pain because he had his arm amputated. People walk zombie-like lost in astonishment. 

Very human reactions to very disturbing photos. In a time where people are working more and declining newspaper readership, photojournalists still evoke interest in world events. 

A comment book at the front of the exhibit lets people record their feelings about the photos. One spectator wrote: "You have really opened my eyes to things that I have never seen, or wish to (see) again. But it needs to be seen and not forgotten."

The the events in the photographs are real life moments of time captured in a single frame, blown up to proportions that couldn't be any more in your face. 

A woman who had a mastectomy. A soldier leaving behind his pregnant wife. Children around the world dying from malnutrition. 

The exhibition prompts us to realize that there is a reality-- a reality where the new episode of "America's Next Top Model" doesn't matter. A reality where no one cares about who's dating who in Hollywood. A reality where people don't even know that television exists. 

It has been said many times how lucky people who live in developed countries really are. But the photojournalists who went out and took these amazing photographs know that. And through their work, photojournalists show us a world that isn't always desireable to view, but hard to forget.


Photos by Pamela Lam