On the greatness of the women of Iran and the greatness of this picture in The Big Picture

I want to link to a stunning photo of the recent events in Iran. If it disappears from this blog, go to this link to see it. (In fact, go see the picture regardless. I had to shrink it here, and that doesn’t do it justice.)

What impressed me in this photo is what is transpiring in the moment it was taken. In the foreground, four men are attacking a man on the ground. The four men are big men. They have clubs. It’s very likely they are organized. Perhaps they are the Baseej/Basij.

In the moment that it is being taken, the men are about to be attacked by women in the background. These women are not armed. They are dressed in traditional  — or at least non-Western — clothing. They do not look to be students or a mob. But they appear to be outraged by this attack, and they are counterattacking the men despite the risk of doing so.

There are many great photos of what is happening in Iran. But I thought this one was particularly strong. If I were a great painter, I would want to paint this scene.

See Iran’s Disputed Election – The Big Picture – Boston.com. It is great to see all the amateur photos and videos on the Internet. And it is not right to compare them to these pictures. They serve a different purpose.  But in terms of journalistic photography on other MSM web sites, nothing compares to The Big Picture.