World Press Photo 2015 winners announced

By admin | March, 5, 2015

The jury of the 58th annual World Press Photo Contest has announced this year’s winners. In what is considered one of the most prestigious photojournalism honors, prizes were given to 42 photographers in eight categories.

“World Press Photo is more interesting than being just a competition. The winning image fosters debate not only within the photo community, about who we are and where we’re going and what we’re trying to say, but also in the larger community. ”
—Donald Weber, World Press Photo Juror

After sifting through almost 100,000 images submitted by nearly 6,000, this year’s jury was able to award prizes to 42 different photographers. The winner of the coveted “World Press Photo of the Year” went to the Danish photographer Mads Nissen for his image of a gay couple in Russia.

After a year in which gay rights made headlines around the world, Nissen’s image was the perfect reflection of the historic change being felt around the world. Although Russia continues to impose repressive policies on its LGBT community, there are signs of hope elsewhere in the world. In the words of juror Alessia Glaviano: “The photo has a message about love being an answer in the context of all that is going on in the world. It is about love as a global issue, in a way that transcends homosexuality. It sends out a strong message to the world, not just about homosexuality, but about equality, about gender, about being black or white, about all of the issues related to minorities.”

This year’s awards were also marked by an increased vigilance against image altering. After controversies in years past, the competition was vigilant to ensure that there were no content modifications in any of the images this year.

In the words of World Press Photo’s managing director Lars Boering: “It seems some photographers can’t resist the temptation to aesthetically enhance their images during post-processing either by removing small details to ‘clean up’ an image, or sometimes by excessive toning that constitutes a material change to the image. Both types of retouching clearly compromise the integrity of the image. Consequently, the jury rejected 20 percent of those entries that had reached the penultimate round of the contest and were therefore not considered for prizes.”

Thus, we can be assured that this year’s winners are not only of the highest quality but also the utmost integrity as well.

see all winning pictures here: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2015

  • A young girl, wounded during clashes near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during anti-government protests. (Bulent Kilic, Spot News, 1st prize singles)
  • Israeli missiles struck a beach in Gaza City, on 16 July, killing four boys and injuring a young adult. Two explosions, separated by some 30 seconds, hit first a shack on the sea wall and then the open sand, where the children were fleeing. (Tyler Hicks, Spot News, 2nd prize singles)
  • Protests broke out in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in November 2013, after President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. (Jérôme Sessini, Spot News, 2nd prize stories)
  • On 15 April, a young man identified only as Balal was due to be hanged for stabbing a friend, Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, to death during a street brawl. (Arash Khamooshi, Spot News, 3rd prize stories)
  • A kitchen table in Donetsk, on 26 August, a day on which several districts of the city came under artillery fire from government troops. (Sergei Ilnitsky, General News, 1st prize singles)
  • Refugees crowd on board a boat some 25 kilometers from the Libyan coast, prior to being rescued by an Italian naval frigate working as part of Operation Mare Nostrum (OMN). (Massimo Sestini, General News, 2nd prize singles)
  • A migrant hides from the Guardia Civil in Melilla, an enclave of Spanish territory in North Africa. Three six-meter-high fences separate Melilla from Morocco, yet for decades people seeking a better life in Europe have attempted to scale the fences and reach Spanish soil. (Gianfranco Tripodo, General News,3rd prize singles)
  • The first cases of a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Sierra Leone were reported in May. There is no cure for Ebola, and the fatality rate can be as high as 90 percent. (Pete Muller, General News, 1st prize stories)
  • After weeks of rising tension following the killing of three Israeli teenagers, Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas in Gaza. (Sergey Ponomarev, General News, 3rd prize stories)
  • Wei (19) works in a factory in Yiwu, eastern China, coating polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. He wears a Christmas hat to protect his hair, and goes through at least six face masks a day. (Ronghui Chen, Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize singles)
  • (Fulvio Bugani, Contemporary Issues, 3rd prize singles).
  • The Chinese film industry is booming, and China already forms Hollywood’s largest export market. (Giulio Di Sturco, Contemporary Issues,1st prize stories)
  • Jon and Alex, a gay couple, share an intimate moment at Alex’s home, a small apartment in St Petersburg, Russia. Life for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is becoming increasingly difficult in Russia. (Mads Nissen, World Press Photo of the Year, Contemporary Issues, 1st prize singles)
  • The photographer bought a small drone, fitted it with a camera, and flew it in the US over the sorts of gatherings that have become habitual targets for airstrikes abroad—weddings, funerals, groups of people praying or exercising. (Tomas van Houtryve, Contemporary Issues, 2nd prize stories)
  • The Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. More than 10,000 Iranians were reported missing in action in Iraq. Many mothers of missing soldiers live in hope of seeing their sons again, or finally having a body that they may bury. (Fatemeh Behboudi, Contemporary Issues , Honorable Mention stories)
  • The wedding of an Eritrean couple, who came to Israel as refugees, is celebrated in Haifa. There are around 50,000 African asylum seekers in Israel, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan. (Malin Fezehai, Daily Life, 3rd prize singles)
  • Mongolia’s economy has been growing at an unprecedented rate, with an average annual increase in GDP between 2011 and 2013 of well above 10 percent. The new ‘Mongolian Wolf’ economy is based primarily on mining, and has attracted considerable foreign investment. (Michele Palazzi, Daily Life, 1st prize stories)
  • A fast-food restaurant in Japan. In some modern cultures, the activity of eating is often a solitary experience: in single seats at solo tables. (Turi Calafato, Daily Life, 3rd prize stories)
  • Laurinda, a young Kamilaroi girl, plays with her dress as she waits for the bus that will take her to Sunday school. (Raphaela Rosella, Portraits, 1st prize singles)
  • A woman suspected of being a sex worker is held for questioning, at a police station in Chongqing, southwest China. (Liu Song, Portraits, 2nd prize singles)
  • Russian women are portrayed in the interiors of their own homes, in the moments just before or after posing for a photograph that would be used for a dating website.
  • Portraits of cadets in some of Europe’s most prestigious military academies. (Paolo Verzone, Portraits, 3rd prize stories)
  • A rhesus macaque cowers as its trainer approaches, while training for a circus act, in Suzhou, eastern China. (Yongzhi Chu, Nature, 1st prize singles)
  • A group of young Samburu warriors touch a black rhino for the first time in their lives, at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, in northern Kenya. (Ami Vitale, Nature, 2nd prize singles)
  • Angelo, a 14-year-old male orangutan, lies waiting for medical examination, in the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) care center in North Sumatra. He was found with air-gun pellets embedded in his body, in a palm-oil plantation. (Sandra Hoyn, Nature, 3rd prize singles)
  • The skin of Colombian caimans, once considered inferior to alligator or crocodile, is now prized for its durability and quality. Production has soared since the 1990s. (Paolo Marchetti, Nature, 3rd prize stories)
  • The photographer, Darcy Padilla, first met Julie Baird on 28 January 1993. Julie was then 18, and was standing barefoot in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel in San Francisco, with an eight-day-old child in her arms. (Darcy Padilla, Long-Term Projects, 1st prize stories)
  • China is now the world’s second-largest economy. Its economic development has consumed lots of energy and generated plenty of pollution. (Lu Guang, Long-Term Projects, 3rd prize stories)

Source: LensCulture

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