A photograph or a painting?

Violent protests in Caracas 

Photo: EPA 

Sometimes, a photograph hits me instantly. It so happened with the one shown above. I felt reminded of a staged scene by Jeff Wall. But this picture was not staged, it was real. I assume that because I came across it in a newspaper. Needless to say that given all the modern tampering possibilities, this is probably not the most reliable indicator. Nevertheless, I've decided to believe that the photograph shown was evidence of what the photographer had observed during violent clashes in Caracas. 

How come I was so fascinated by this image? Here are my guesses: it did not strike me as a current press photograph; it looked more like a painting than a photograph; there seemed to be some timeless quality about it ... and that I thought great and odd at the same time for a press photograph and timelessness rarely go hand in hand. 

By the way, here's the newspaper-link.