Around the world: 2013 World Press Photo Winners 1
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| 1st Prize Nature Storie |
The prize-winning pictures are presented in an exhibition visiting more than 100 cities in over 45 countries. The first 2013 World Press Photo exhibition opened in Amsterdam on 26 April 2013.
Paul Nicklen, Canada, National Geographic magazine
18 November 2011, Ross Sea, Antarctica
Swimming emperor penguins shoot to the water’s surface. The cloud of bubbles they create may help confuse predators.
Emperor penguins’ body shape and poor climbing ability make it difficult for the birds to haul themselves ashore, especially onto icy or rocky coasts. It is also a moment when they are especially vulnerable to attacks by predators, such as the leopard seal.
But the flightless emperor penguin is capable of becoming airborne, by swimming at up to three times its normal speed, and launching itself from the water to clear the edge of a shoreline. Recent research shows that the penguins do this by releasing air from their feathers, in the form of tiny bubbles.
The bubbles act as a lubricant, cutting drag, and enabling the birds to achieve bursts of speeds that would otherwise be impossible.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
18 November 2011, Ross Sea, Antarctica
Swimming emperor penguins shoot to the water’s surface. The cloud of bubbles they create may help confuse predators.
Emperor penguins’ body shape and poor climbing ability make it difficult for the birds to haul themselves ashore, especially onto icy or rocky coasts. It is also a moment when they are especially vulnerable to attacks by predators, such as the leopard seal.
But the flightless emperor penguin is capable of becoming airborne, by swimming at up to three times its normal speed, and launching itself from the water to clear the edge of a shoreline. Recent research shows that the penguins do this by releasing air from their feathers, in the form of tiny bubbles.
The bubbles act as a lubricant, cutting drag, and enabling the birds to achieve bursts of speeds that would otherwise be impossible.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
1st Prize Nature Single
Christian Ziegler, Germany
16 November 2012, Black Mountain Road, Queensland, Australia
A southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) feeds on the fruit of the blue quandong tree. The flightless birds grow up to two meters in height, with males weighing some 55 kg, and females 76 kg.
Cassowaries are an endangered species, with around only 1,500 left in the wild. The birds are crucial to the ancient rainforest of northern Queensland, because they carry large seeds in their stomachs for long distances. Several dozen tree species appear to rely on cassowaries alone to disperse their seeds.
The birds are under threat from habitat loss, resulting from agricultural and housing development, killings by domestic dogs, and collisions with vehicles.
Images courtesy of GO Communications
Christian Ziegler, Germany
16 November 2012, Black Mountain Road, Queensland, Australia
A southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) feeds on the fruit of the blue quandong tree. The flightless birds grow up to two meters in height, with males weighing some 55 kg, and females 76 kg.
Cassowaries are an endangered species, with around only 1,500 left in the wild. The birds are crucial to the ancient rainforest of northern Queensland, because they carry large seeds in their stomachs for long distances. Several dozen tree species appear to rely on cassowaries alone to disperse their seeds.
The birds are under threat from habitat loss, resulting from agricultural and housing development, killings by domestic dogs, and collisions with vehicles.
Images courtesy of GO Communications
1st Prize People – Staged Portraits Stories
Stephan Vanfleteren, Belgium, Panos for Mercy Ships/De Standaard
17 October 2012, Conakry, Guinea
Makone Soumaoro (30): “My neck doesn’t hurt, but I worry that it swells so much. I hope it is not a tumor, because I’m a housewife and my husband and children need me.”
People receiving treatment on Africa Mercy, a hospital ship docked at Conakry, Guinea.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
Stephan Vanfleteren, Belgium, Panos for Mercy Ships/De Standaard
17 October 2012, Conakry, Guinea
Makone Soumaoro (30): “My neck doesn’t hurt, but I worry that it swells so much. I hope it is not a tumor, because I’m a housewife and my husband and children need me.”
People receiving treatment on Africa Mercy, a hospital ship docked at Conakry, Guinea.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
1st Prize Daily Life Stories
Fausto Podavini, Italy
01 June 2010, Rome, Italy
Mirella was married to her husband Luigi for over 40 years. At the age of 65, Luigi began to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. For six years, Mirella cared for Luigi herself, at home in Rome.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive degenerative illness that can affect memory, thinking, behavior, and emotion, and is the most common type of dementia. Over 36 million worldwide people live with dementia, and numbers are increasing as populations age.
For Mirella, it meant that everyday tasks became long and difficult operations involving both of them. At one point Luigi seemed no longer to understand what the cutlery and food set before him were for, and stopped eating. He appeared unable to distinguish between day and night, and his confused body clock—sleeping during the day, and staying awake at night—disrupted Mirella’s daily rhythm, too. After five years of the disease, Luigi no longer recognized his wife. He died in May 2011, with Mirella and their family at his bedside.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
Fausto Podavini, Italy
01 June 2010, Rome, Italy
Mirella was married to her husband Luigi for over 40 years. At the age of 65, Luigi began to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. For six years, Mirella cared for Luigi herself, at home in Rome.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive degenerative illness that can affect memory, thinking, behavior, and emotion, and is the most common type of dementia. Over 36 million worldwide people live with dementia, and numbers are increasing as populations age.
For Mirella, it meant that everyday tasks became long and difficult operations involving both of them. At one point Luigi seemed no longer to understand what the cutlery and food set before him were for, and stopped eating. He appeared unable to distinguish between day and night, and his confused body clock—sleeping during the day, and staying awake at night—disrupted Mirella’s daily rhythm, too. After five years of the disease, Luigi no longer recognized his wife. He died in May 2011, with Mirella and their family at his bedside.
Images courtesy of GO Communication
- World Press Photo of the Year 2012
Paul Hansen, Sweden, Dagens Nyheter
20 November 2012, Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
The bodies of two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and his elder brother Muhammad, almost four, are carried by their uncles to a mosque for their funeral, in Gaza City.
The children were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on 19 November. The strike also killed their father, Fouad, and severely injured their mother and four other siblings.
Israel had begun an intense offensive against Hamas-ruled Gaza on 14 November in response to continued rocket fire from Palestinian militant groups. In the first days of the offensive, Israel struck at targets of military and strategic importance, though the scope of attack later widened to include residences suspected of harboring Hamas militants. By the time a ceasefire was brokered on 21 November, over 150 people had been killed in Gaza. Of these 103 were thought to be civilians, including at least 30 children.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize General News Stories
Alessio Romenzi, Italy, Corbis for Time magazine
14 April 2012, Syria-Turkey border
Displaced people attempt to cross the border from Syria into Turkey.
Ongoing conflict in Syria between troops and militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and dissidents of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebel groups, led to escalating fatalities and a massive exodus of refugees. Government forces were accused of deliberate mass targeting and indiscriminate use of airpower, particularly in battles for the cities of Homs and Aleppo.
A peace plan drafted by UN envoy Kofi Annan in March failed, and a further UN-brokered ceasefire during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha in October also collapsed. By November, an estimated 2.5 million people had been displaced, with tens of thousands crossing borders into neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan. A UN survey at the end of the year held the death toll nationwide to be at least 60,000.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 2nd Prize Spot News Stories
Fabio Bucciarelli, Italy, Agence France-Presse
10 October 2012, Aleppo, Syria
A Free Syrian Army fighter takes up position in the Sulemain Halabi district, a rebel stronghold, during clashes with government forces.
The Syrian commercial hub of Aleppo was the scene of some of the bloodiest clashes in the ongoing uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Both government and opposition forces considered control of Aleppo to be strategically important to their aims.
The FSA first seized parts of the city in July. In the months that followed, government forces battled to recapture it, with limited success. By the end of the year, the Syrian military had control over a western segment of the city, with the rebels entrenched in much of the east and south. Some of the fiercest fighting was in and around the Old City.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize General News Single
Rodrigo Abd, Argentina, The Associated Press
10 March 2012, Idlib, Syria
Aida cries as she recovers from severe injuries sustained during a Syrian military bombardment of her home, in the northern city of Idlib. Her husband and two children were killed in the attack.
Syrian troops launched a vigorous assault on Idlib, a center of the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The shelling of Idlib began just hours after UN envoy Kofi Annan had arrived in Damascus, on a high-profile international mission aiming to mediate an end to the conflict.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 3rd Prize General News Stories
Daniel Berehulak, Australia, Getty Images
07 March 2012, Rikuzentakata, Iwate, Japan
Uprooted pine trees still lie strewn over a beach in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture. Rikuzentakata was almost completely destroyed by the 2011 tsunami, and lost up to 40 percent of its population of over 23,000.
A year after the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated large areas of northeastern Japan, thousands of people remained without homes, and the Japanese government was still struggling to dispose of rubble and help rebuild livelihoods.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize Sports – Sports Action Single
Wei Seng Chen, Malaysia
12 February 2012, West Sumatra, Indonesia
A competitor and his charges reach the finish of a bull race, in Batu Sangkar, West Sumatra.
Pacu Jawi is a 400-year-old tradition in the area, held after the rice harvest once the paddies have been cleared. Competitors yoke themselves barefoot to two bulls using a wooden harness, and drive the animals by gripping their tails.
Winners are judged by their ability to run in a straight line, and by whether both animals are cooperating. Some 600 bulls and 50 farmers participated over a number of races in Pacu Jawi in February.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 2nd Prize Sports – Sports Action Stories
Sergei Ilnitsky, Russia, European Pressphoto Agency
31 July 2012, London, UK
Fencing at the London 2012 Olympics.
Alaaeldin Abouelkassem of Egypt (top) in action against Peter Joppich of Germany during the men’s foil individual match. Abouelkassem won the bout and went on to take a silver medal.
Images courtesy of GO Communications - 1st Prize Sports – Sports Action Stories
Roman Vondrous, Czech Republic, Czech Press Agency
22 July 2012, Kolesa, Czech Republic
The Velká Pardubická was first held in 1874, and has gained a reputation as one of the toughest and most grueling steeplechases in the world. Held each October in the town of Pardubice in the Czech Republic, the race has been run almost every year since its founding.
The steeplechase was not held during the two world wars, nor in 1968, because of the political situation in the then Czechoslovakia. Adverse weather conditions have only twice led to its cancellation.
Due to the difficulty of the track, horses cannot compete unless they are at least seven years old and have finished one of the four qualifying races held between May and September at different locations around the country.
The Velká Pardubická is run over a distance of 6,900 meters, with the horses having to negotiate a total of 31 obstacles—some of legendary difficulty. The most notorious is Taxis Ditch, a one-meter-deep ditch hidden behind a hedge half as high again. Over the years the obstacle has cost the lives of 27 horses.
The race usually lasts around ten minutes, and is run by 15 to 20 horses, ridden by some of the best jockeys in the country. Winning—or at least competing in—the Velká Pardubická is considered the highpoint of a jockey’s career.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize Contemporary Issues Single
Micah Albert, USA, Redux Images for Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
03 April 2012, Nairobi, Kenya
A woman sits on bags of waste she has salvaged, at the Dandora municipal dump, outside Nairobi, Kenya. She said that she enjoys looking at books, even industrial catalogues, as a break from picking up garbage.
The dumpsite, some 8 km from the center of the Kenyan capital, is one of the largest rubbish dumps in Africa. People living in the slum area around the site have been found to suffer from increased levels of lead in their blood, as well as above normal incidence of kidney disease and cancer. Gases rising from decomposing waste lead to high rates of respiratory disease.
Despite the health risks, between 6,000 and 10,000 people earn a living from the dumpsite, seeking food waste, scavenging goods for resale, or separating materials for recycling. Informal cartels run the recycling operation, paying pickers around €2 a day.
Opened in 1975, the dump should—under international environmental laws—have been closed after 15 years. It remains in use, despite being declared full in 2001.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 3rd Prize C Contemporary Issues Single
Emilio Morenatti, Spain, The Associated Press
29 March 2012, Barcelona, Spain
Mireia Arnau (39) reacts behind the broken glass of her shop, stormed by demonstrators clashing with police in Barcelona, during a general strike on 29 March.
The national strike was called in protest against the government’s labor reforms. In an ongoing climate of economic difficulty, parliament was proposing stringent cuts, as well as measures aimed at making it easier for businesses to fire employees.
Spain’s unemployment was running at over 24 percent, the highest in the European Union, with half of under 25s out of work. Most protests across the country were peaceful, but in Barcelona some demonstrators hurled rocks at banks and shop fronts.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize Contemporary Issues Stories
Maika Elan, Vietnam, MoST Artists
22 June 2012, Hoh Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Phan Thi Thuy Vy (20, left) and Dang Thi Bich Bay (20), both students, relax at the end of the day watching television. They have been together for a year.
Vietnam has historically been unwelcoming to same-sex couples, but in 2012 the Vietnamese government announced it was considering recognizing same-sex marriage, a move that would make it the first Asian country to do so. Despite past human rights issues and a long-standing stigma against homosexuality, parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage was scheduled for 2013. Polls showed that majority public opinion remained opposed to the idea. In August 2012, the country’s first gay pride parade took place in Hanoi.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 2nd Prize Daily Life Single
Søren Bidstrup, Denmark, Berlingske
08 July 2012, Jeselo, Italy
The photographer’s family, early one morning on summer holiday in northern Italy. - 1st Prize Daily Life Stories
Fausto Podavini, Italy
01 June 2010, Rome, Italy
Mirella was married to her husband Luigi for over 40 years. At the age of 65, Luigi began to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. For six years, Mirella cared for Luigi herself, at home in Rome.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive degenerative illness that can affect memory, thinking, behavior, and emotion, and is the most common type of dementia. Over 36 million worldwide people live with dementia, and numbers are increasing as populations age.
For Mirella, it meant that everyday tasks became long and difficult operations involving both of them. At one point Luigi seemed no longer to understand what the cutlery and food set before him were for, and stopped eating. He appeared unable to distinguish between day and night, and his confused body clock—sleeping during the day, and staying awake at night—disrupted Mirella’s daily rhythm, too. After five years of the disease, Luigi no longer recognized his wife. He died in May 2011, with Mirella and their family at his bedside.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 3rd Prize People – Observed Portraits Single
Ilona Szwarc, Poland, Redux Pictures
19 February 2012, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Kayla stands with her American Girl doll, in front of a portrait of her ancestors at home in Boston.
The dolls come in a range of different ‘characters’, with varying skin tones and hairstyles, that customers can choose from.
Images courtesy of GO Communications - 1st Prize People – Observed Portraits Singles
Nemanja Pančić, Serbia, Kurir
27 February 2012, Belgrade, Serbia
Milan (4) leaves the hospital on 27 February, three months after surviving a family suicide attempt in which both his father and mother died. All three jumped from a sixth-floor balcony, in Belgrade, Serbia.
Milan’s parents had been experiencing financial difficulties in the midst of a struggling national economy.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 2nd Prize Prize People – Staged Portraits Single
Stefen Chow, Malaysia, for Smithsonian magazine
06 February 2012, Beijing, China
Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei is active across a number of media, including sculpture, installation, architecture, photography and film. He is highly vocal in his criticism of the Chinese government’s record on democracy and human rights, and in his investigations of corruption and cover-up.
In 2011, Ai was detained by the authorities, accused of tax evasion. He spent time in jail and under house arrest, and he cannot travel without government permission.
In May, Ai was a recipient of the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, awarded by the Human Rights Foundation.
Images courtesy of GO Communicationsless - 1st Prize People – Staged Portraits Stories
Stephan Vanfleteren, Belgium, Panos for Mercy Ships/De Standaard
17 October 2012, Conakry, Guinea
Makone Soumaoro (30): “My neck doesn’t hurt, but I worry that it swells so much. I hope it is not a tumor, because I’m a housewife and my husband and children need me.”
People receiving treatment on Africa Mercy, a hospital ship docked at Conakry, Guinea.
Images courtesy of GO Communications
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