The World Press Photograph of the Year is linked here. (I've grabbed and reposted it from the Guardian newsblog.) The winner is Spencer Platt of Getty Images for his photograph, taken during last summer's Lebanese-Israeli war, of stylish young Lebanese driving down a devastated street in south Beirut, in a red convertible. There's a guy behind the wheel and four attractive and busty young ladies wearing oversized sunglasses. One of them is snapping pictures on her cellphone cam. Behind them, what must have been a high-rise is a pile of rubble. The image is stunning in its contrasts and banality. Without the background, it could have been taken on Rodeo or La Cienega. (* Or even, a friend notes, Mexico City or Tijuana.) If I remember right, it ran A1 in the L.A. Times.
According to their website, TimeOut Beirut is still rebuilding after shutting down during the conflict. Here is Mehammed Mack's ode to that city at the LA Weekly. The current ArtKrush has an interview with the founding editor of Bidoun magazine, Lisa Farjam:
Any form of expression is a political act, but you could make the case that the link between art and politics is exceptionally intimate in the Middle East, whether it's a question of representation, expression, funding, or exhibition space. In the Middle East, art-making occurs in relation to ideas about nationhood, "good art," censorship, etc., which all intersect with political discourse. One can't really talk about the arts in this part of the world without raising the question of politics.