Amnesty International Australia (AIA) has built a life-sized replica of David Hicks’s Guantanamo Bay prison cell and is currently in Sydney’s CBD. AIA campaign coordinator Katie Wood said the idea behind the replica cell was to help people experience first hand the “dehumanising” conditions Mr Hicks has faced for more than five years.

Aussie VR Photographer, Peter Murphy, took a 360-degree VR photo inside this 1.8m by 2.4m prison so we can experience it ourselves. Click here to spend sometime in a Guantanamo Bay prison cell (requires Quicktime player).

See also AIA website to bring Hicks back home.

This VR photo was taken by Andy during the recent Israeli/Lebanese conflict. A school in Tzfat Israel was hit by one of many Katyusha rockets fired by Hizbollah.

I read this sobering account by Patrick Cockburn of how the Palestinians are under seige. “A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June”.

This reminds me of a quote from a Golden Globe award-winning film called Paradise Now. The female lead character, Suha, which symbolizes Palestinians against suicide-bombing in Israel is trying to convince Khaled, one of the would-be suicide-bombers, that God doesn’t reward martyrdom and the “paradise” he longs for is merely in his head.
“I’d rather have paradise in my head than live in this hell” retorts Khaled.

I had shared VR images a few weeks ago taken by Travis Fox of the destruction in Gaza and Beirut. These images might help understand what the Palestinians are going through under foreign occupation.

Protests took place in Athens and Thessaloniki on the 18th July in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

There was large turnout in Athens and the demonstrators marched towards the U.S and Israeli embassy.

I was surprised to find VR photography being used by the online edition of the Washington Post. I think it is about time photojournalists use this immersive experience to document news-worthy events.

VR Photographer Travis Fox travelled to Beirut and Gaza and his images need no comments:

Officials inspect Interior Ministry damage - Gaza

Family Injured in attack - Gaza

Bridge Destroyed in Salahdeen Road - Gaza

Bridge destroyed by airstrikes - Beirut

Suburbs in ruins #1 - Beirut

Suburbs in ruins #2 - Beirut

Parking lot struck by warplanes - Beirut

Evacuees gather - Beirut

Taking refuge in a classroom - Beirut

I took this VR photo (virtual tour) of the demonstration that was held infront of Doctor’s Syndicate ‘Dar Al-Hikma’ on Sunday 16th July 2006. Hundreds came out to show support and solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people. Truckloads of Egyptian riot police were present and controlled the protesters by limiting the area where they could voice their protest. I checked Google New today and NOTHING was mentioned about it.

More demonstrations will be organized in the coming days. I’ll try to take more VR photos without being arrested or my camera being confiscated.

I have 2 formats ready for your viewing pleasures: A medium-sized view which is easy to download and requires no plugins (500K / FLASH) and a fullscreen, in-your-face view that requires QuickTime player (1.3MB / QUICKTIME). QuickTime is a free media player and you can download it from here.