HKFP Lens: World Press Photo winners capture human suffering during wars and climate crisis
Hong Kong Free Press
The renowned World Press Photo Contest has released this year’s winnerd of its four major awards.
Photo of the Year
The work of Associated Press war photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, who captured an injured pregnant woman being carried away from a hospital in Ukraine damaged during a Russian airstrike, won Photo of the Year.
The World Press Photo Foundation said the confronting image from the siege of Mariupol perfectly captured the human suffering caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a single image. The infant was stillborn and the woman died soon after.
Story of the year
Mads Nissen, whose work was selected as the Story of the Year, captured the daily lives of people across Afghanistan in 2022.
The photo series began with a portrait of 15 year-old boy who sold his kidney for US$3,500 to buy food for his family.
After two decades of war, the US and allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
As a result, the Taliban regained control of the country, leading to the cessation of international aid that had largely funded the government.
Additionally, billions of dollars of Afghan state assets were frozen, causing the already weak economy to crumble.
Nissen photographed the story of a country in crisis while on assignment for Politiken. “My hope with this work is more than anything to create not just awareness, but engagement to the millions of Afghans who are desperately in need of food and humanitarian aid right now,” he said.
Open format Award
Mohamed Mahdy won the Open Format Award. Mahdy has worked with residents of Al Max, in Egypt, to preserve the memory of their fast-disappearing fishing village through an interactive website.
Long-term Project Award
The Long-Term Project Award went to Anush Babajanyan, who spent years covering a story about water management after the collapse of the Soviet Union was made worse by the climate crisis.
In Central Asia, drought, conflicting needs, and water mismanagement are disrupting the long-standing cooperation between four landlocked countries.
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