World Press Photo awards ‘pieta’ of the Gaza war

The five-year-old dead girl is completely wrapped in a white sheet. The face of her aunt, who has taken her in her arms and is bending deeply over her, is also not visible. But the great sadness is unmistakable in this image by the Palestinian photographer Mohammed Salem from Reuters news agency.

The photographer calls the photo “a powerful and sad moment, which in a broader sense summarizes what happened in the Gaza Strip.” The position of the woman, her hand on the head of the slain girl, the shape of her body wrapped in cloth, could be seen as a classic pietà in a Christian context.

Last year, the jury chose a photo about the consequences of the war against Ukraine as Photo of the Year, showing a seriously injured pregnant woman being carried away on a stretcher after a Russian bombardment. Now it appears once again that it is not the acts of war themselves, but their consequences that produce the most striking press photo.

After the Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival. Photo Leon Neal/Getty Images A Palestinian woman between destroyed bombed buildings in Gaza. Photo Mustafa Hassouna/Anadolu Images

The photo of is more explicit Mustafa Hassouna (Anadolu Images). It also shows a lonely individual among what the war has brought about, but here the consequences of the war explicitly dominate the image. A woman finds her way through mountains of chunks of concrete, remnants of apartment buildings in Gaza that were bombed by Israel. Is she about to raise her hands to heaven, or is she keeping her balance with them?

The Story of the Year

Dementia may carry a social stigma there, but Olwage’s images show a loving family, in which the grandfather is surrounded with warmth and is a natural part of everyday activities. Like when ‘Dada Paul’ and his granddaughter Odliatemix get dressed together, apparently in front of a mirror, to go to church. The man has had dementia for at least eleven years and is cared for by his daughter Fara.

A family in Madagascar, in which the demented grandfather is a natural part of everyday activities.

Photo’s: Lee-Ann Own/GEO

Prize for the best long-term project

Based on his own experience as a migrant who came to Mexico from Venezuela in 2017, photographer Alejandro Cegarra focuses on a long-term project on migrants in Mexico. With an eye for their tenacity in often extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances.

One of the award-winning photos shows a migrant walking on a freight train. It is a means of transportation that many migrants who do not have money for smugglers use, despite the great risks involved.

A migrant walks over a freight train in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras, near the border with the US state of Texas. Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times/Bloomberg With his daughter on his shoulders, Ever Sosa, with many others, crosses the Suchiate river between Guatemala and Mexico over.Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times/BloombergRuben Soto (right) from Venezuela and Rosa Bello (left) from Honduras have fallen in love in Mexico. On top of a freight train they are heading to the US.Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times/BloombergA migrant family poses on a freight train heading to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, on the US border.Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times/ BloombergAsylum seekers wait outside the Refugee Commission office in the city of Tapachula, in the far south of Mexico.Alejandro Cegarra/The New York Times/Bloomberg

Prize for the best Open Format

The jury calls the project “a complex exploration of the emotional and psychological toll, expressing not only loss, pain, despair and resignation, but also hope and resilience.”

Images from the online project War is personal van Julia Kochetova

Photos: Julia Kochetova

Share Email the editor