Swedish photographer Paul Hansen wins 56th World Press Photo

From the pages of the BJP

World Press Photo of the Year 2012’s winning image by Paul Hansen, Sweden, Dagens Nyheter. Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her big brother Muhammad, who soon was to be four years old, were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike on Monday evening. Their father, Fouad, was also killed. Their mother is in intensive care at Al-Shifa Hospital. In accordance with their religion, the dead are buried quickly. The badly mangled body of Fouad is put on a stretcher and his brothers carry his dead children to the mosque for the burial ceremony. When darkness fell over Gaza on this day, at least 26 new victims were to be buried. That makes the total more than 140 dead so far since the beginning of the bombardment. Approximately half of the dead are women and children. The picture was taken on 20 November 2012 in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories.

“The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children. It’s a picture I will not forget,” says Mayu Mohanna, a jury member at this year’s World Press Photo photojournalism contest. In the image, two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her three-year-old brother Muhammad are being taken to a mosque for the burial ceremony, after they were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. “Their father’s body is carried behind on a stretcher [and] their mother was put in intensive care,” says the Amsterdam-based organisation. “The picture was made on 20 November 2012 in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories.”….more by Olivier Laurent here

 The winning image was selected from 103,481 images submitted by 5,666 photographers from 124 countries. Hansen recently won First Place in the Pictures of the Year International competition in the Photographer of the Year – Newspaper category.

Google Photography Prize winner – Viktor Johansson

I must use google 20 or 30 times a day and although I am there more than I am at home I had never heard of the google photography prize until it announced a winner.

Grand Prize – Viktor Johansson

“Viktor is a 24-year-old student at the Swedish photography school, Nordens Fotoskola Biskops-Arnö. The judges were impressed and captivated with his series that focused on Christoffer Eskilsson, Sweden’s best male diver from 10 metres. Viktor has chosen to show us an alternative view, one that we are not used to seeing from sport photography in the media. Instead of glamorous action shots of an athlete in competition, he has produced arresting and unexpected photographs that focus on the long, lonely hours of repetitive training and practice that it takes to excel in your field.”

I have searched for a web site for Viktor without luck so although there is much media coverage of his win and his winning portfolio you may have to wait for further information.

I think that the competition is open to students, but if I am honest I haven’t looked at the rules, and I also assume there is a competition running through the next 12 months but again I struggle to find the information, seems to me that for an information company google are not doing well in this instance.

Here is the link to the google photography prize page

All images © Viktor Johansson

Other links of interest

The Telegraph

The Independent

The BBC

Design Week