After a decent, much needed, sleep I tucked into a staff prepared pancake and maple syrup breakfast and planned out my day. As I got an unexpected amount done the day before, I felt less pressurised for time. My first destination of the day was a trip back to the Newseum to finish off the exhibits I missed.
One of the advantages of the location of my hostel was that to get to the attractions in the city, you would walk right past the Capitol building and right down The Mall. As today was a far more pleasant day than previously, I retook many photos, including some new ones in front of the Capitol fountain.
When I got back into the Newseum, the next exhibit I saw was about news coverage of the 9/11 attacks. The centrepiece of the exhibit was a portion of the television and radio mast that sat atop one of the towers. It was very mangled but mainly in tact...
Also displayed prominently (you can see in the picture above) were the newspaper headlines from around the world, proclaiming shock, anger, war, and just telling the news. The most affecting part of the exhibit however, was a short video interviewing journalists who were on the scene right after the aeroplanes bit and during the collapse of the towers (unbelievably, only one journalist, a photographer, died- his recovered equipment and photographs were on display).
On the next level down, the question of press freedom and ethics were scrutinised. My two favourites of the exhibition was the world press freedom map, colour-coding the level of press freedom (surprisingly), and an interactive quiz on what you would do in ethically grey situations. The question that took my interest was about a 3 year old starving Sudanese child crawling on the ground to a UN food camp. A vulture flew onto the ground next to her and you, a photographer, was asked whether you would help the girl or take the photo and do nothing. I opted for helping the girl but the majority of press responses would have been the other option. There reasoning would be that far more impact would be made with the photo than helping the girl. In one way, they were right, the story was real, and the photographer (Kevin Carter) won a Pulitzer Prize and helped put the spotlight of famine in Africa.
It later emerged that Kevin had waited 20 minutes hoping that the vulture would open its wings. In defence of Kevin however, it should be noted that UN aid workers told people not to touch the children as they were likely diseased and this could spread the disease. He also regretted his decision for the rest of his life and he committed suicide several years later. As sad as the story is, it shows the difficulty of morals and ethics in journalism.
On the bottom floor they was an exhibit on Pulitzer Prize winning photographs including all the winners and many of the stories behind the photos. It is in these photos that the joy and sadness, cowardice and courage, and good and evil of life are clearly shown. Many of these photos are universally recognisable (raising the flagon Iwo Jima and the naked Vietnamese girl running from the napalm) and have played a huge part in contributing to public perception.
After the Newseum, I spent the next couple of hours in the National gallery across the street. The fact I only had an hour or so meant that I couldn't enjoy the visit as much as I would have liked, especially since the gallery featured thousands of paintings. After walking briskly through the Pre-Renaissance art, stopping only to take photos of painters I had heard of, I spent a little more time in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century European works. Although I did not get a full 'experience', I did manage to see some Turner, Rembrandt, Monet, Constable, Holbein, Bosch, and Van Gogh. The temporary exhibit was on the Pre-Raphelite English painters which again, unfortunately I could not spend too much time around. I did however manage to see 'Ophelia', a favourite of mine.
With all this talk of running out of time, I should admit the reason that this was the case. Quite simply, it was the second leg of Bayern Munich v Barcelona, and at the time (and let's be honest, in hindsight as well) I thought this was a better use of time. I watched the game with a German guy from the hostel enjoying a good cheap pitcher of beer. Although the result was not as I wanted, seeing the One True Sport did give me a comfortable taste of home.
With everything closed after the match had finished I headed back to the hostel and spent a few hours catching up in my blog, and chatting with some new arrivals: Jesse, Amanda, and Peter from Australia, and Jessica from Wales. Tomorrow I would make my advance on Capitol Hill and see what delights American democracy had in store for me.
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