Friends and foes, big nations and small, gather every September at the United Nations. Enrique Shore looks at this year’s assembly.
Every September, an extraordinary event takes place in New York City. It happens with such regularity that it has become almost mundane.
The United Nations General Assembly brings together in one city the heads of state and government from virtually all of the countries of the world. It is a logistical nightmare, especially for security forces, and an easy target for cynics who say the UN has not lived up to its promise.
But where else can leaders of even the smallest nations hold forth from the same podium as those representing the most powerful?
Where else can sworn enemies inhabit the same space without coming to blows? And to the credit of the UN spirit and the United States, where else can one leader after another denounce the host nation and be invited back, year after year?
News-Decoder photographer Enrique Shore attended the UN General Assembly last week and watched as leader after leader took center stage in a demonstration of the UN penchant for gab but also of the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness — values in short supply in today’s world.
Enrique Shore is a photographer and pictures editor with three decades experience covering World Cups, Olympics, presidential elections, summits and the first Gulf War. He was Reuters’ chief photographer for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, then based in Madrid in charge of the Iberian peninsula. He later looked after media clients in Spain and Portugal. He is currently an independent photographer, editor and consultant based in New York.