Ed Ou and Gaza Rainbows

I wanted to share this photo from the brilliant Ed Ou who has been shooting in Gaza.

If most of the photos from this latest conflict have been matter-of-fact(and often aligning sympathies in one direction or the other, that’s not typical of Ou. Ed, who has spent considerable time in the region and appreciates its intractability, instead typically captures the larger complexities, ambiguities and inconsistencies.

The caption of this new photo posted on Instagram reads:

Fisherman bargain over the price of their daily catch in #gaza. As a condition of the #ceasefire agreement between #hamas and #israel , gazan fisherman should now be able to venture six miles out to sea as opposed to three in the naval blockade.

Is it a positive development that Gaza’s fisherman now have double the ocean space in which to fish? Certainly it is. In light of the larger status and fate of the territory, however, does it go so far as signal a new day? a new dawn? Of course, the scene would be completely straight-forward … if not for that half-hopeful and wondrous, and half-thoroughly ironic rainbow.

(photo: Ed Ou/Instagram)