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Lucas Jackson / Reuters
A miracle survivor is pulled from Bangladesh's rubble, an explosion rocks Turkey's border, the pope releases a dove, a large rubber duck floats off Hong Kong, and more.
This story was originally published on Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:05 PM EST
Chen Wei Seng via World Press Photo
View the award winning images selected by World Press Photo.
World Press Photo announced the winners of the 56th annual photojournalism contest on Friday. Click on the picture above to view this year's winning images.
The 56th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Paul Hansen of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter as the World Press Photo of the Year 2012.
The picture shows a group of men carrying the bodies of two dead children through a street in Gaza City on Nov. 20, 2012. They are being taken to a mosque for a burial ceremony while their father's body is carried behind on a stretcher. Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and his older brother Muhammad were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. Their mother was put in intensive care.
Paul Hansen / Dagens Nyheter via World Press Photo
The photo was selected from a total of 103,481 images submitted by 5,666 photographers from 124 countries.
"The strength of the picture lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children," jury member Mayu Mohanna said. "It's a picture I will not forget."
Chen Wei Seng via World Press Photo
View the award winning images selected by World Press Photo.
Married at the age of 8. That fact alone is hard to fathom. It's even more difficult to stomach when you think of the resulting forced sex, physical abuse and early pregnancies that often result. But for girls in more than 50 countries in the developing world, and for a minority in the developed world, this is their reality. The reality of child marriage.
Stephanie Sinclair / VIl
Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2005. Ghulam said she is sad to be getting engaged as she wanted to be a teacher.
Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair has been documenting this issue around the world since 2003. A large body of her work was published last year in National Geographic.
We asked Sinclair to tell us more about her reporting:
How did you come up with this story idea and how long have you been reporting it?
This project began in 2003, after I met several girls in Herat, Afghanistan who had attempted suicide by self-immolation. I noticed that many of the girls who had set themselves on fire had been married at very young ages, in many cases prepubescent. It was the first time I’d ever encountered anyone who had been married so young. This phenomenon seemed to link many of these girls and this intense act of desperation. I couldn’t help but feel a responsibility to research and document whatever it was that would make these girls take such drastic measures. The resulting project has taken almost a decade to date, and I am still working on the issue. What makes it so complicated is its prevalence in more than 50 countries worldwide. To document it properly, one needs to address the many cultural reasons behind the issue as well as the differing impacts on the varying societies.
How many different countries did you travel to for this story, and how did you gain access to these sensitive stories and events?
I have documented this issue in Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Ethiopia and Yemen. Access has always been incredibly difficult for several reasons. The most obvious obstacle is that parents and families innately know that what they are doing can harm their children. But they continue this harmful traditional practice because they may feel societal pressures, have concerns for their safety and well being should they remain unmarried, or may even need to simply sell their girls in a desperate move to feed their other children. Fortunately, almost every image in this project was done with the help of the locals living within these societies. They wanted this issue to get support so they could be further empowered to combat child marriage. Those people were key in helping me gain access, and telling these stories would have been impossible without them.
Stephanie Sinclair / VII
Nujood Ali was ten when she fled her abusive, much older husband and took a taxi to the courthouse in Sanaa, Yemen. The girl's courageous act and the landmark legal battle that ensued turned her into an international heroine for women's rights. Now divorced, she is back home with her family and attending school again.
What is most disturbing to you about child marriage and what would you most like people to know about it?
There are many disturbing factors related to child marriage. But I think the thing that we must acknowledge is that in most cases these young children do not want to be married. They want normal lives — to play with their friends, be educated and have a full adolescence. These marriages rob many girls of their innocence, many times before puberty, and this is something that as a global society we cannot tolerate. The bottom line is child marriage isn't just harmful to the girls involved. It's at the root of so many other societal ills: poverty, disease, maternal mortality, infant mortality, violence against women. All of those are symptoms connected to the same problem: child marriage. If you solve the child marriage problem, these other issues benefit as well.
Is there a solution?
A multifaceted approach is needed to address the issue of child marriage. In fact, yesterday Sec. Hillary Clinton announced a USAID-sponsored pilot program in Bangladesh that will work with religious leaders, media, local governments and NGOs to foster community support for an end to child marriage. However education is still the single most protective factor against this practice. This means keeping the children in school as long as possible, as well as educating the communities about its harmful impact on the health of their girls, their grandchildren, as well as their societies as a whole.
I also strongly believe there is not just a need for awareness-raising and prevention work, but we must find ways to help these girls who are already in these marriages — be it through giving financial incentives to their families to let them stay in school, or vocational training so they can have more say in their lives and households. Quality medical treatment is also needed for girls who are giving birth at these young ages. These girls need long-term solutions. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. But there seems to be a growing movement aimed at ending child marriage. In fact, at yesterday's State Department announcement, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of The Elders, announced a very ambitious goal: to end the practice by 2030. If this issue remains a global priority, I'm optimistic that we can meet that deadline.
To mark the first inaugural International Day of the Girl Child on October 11, 2012, the United Nations Population Fund will partner with VII Photo to host an exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to present the personal narrative of the girls themselves. The hope is that their stories, presented in photography and video productions by Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock, will renew global attention toward this critical issue and accountability across the international community. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will be among many prominent figures attending the opening.
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British photographer Giles Duley made his name covering fashion and music before turning his attention to photojournalism. Last year, Duley was severely injured after he stepped on an I.E.D. while on patrol with American troops in Afghanistan.
18 months on, Duley has returned to work as a photographer at the Paralympic Games. "I'm myself again," he told NBC News' Baruch Ben-Chorin. Hear his story in the video below.
Only 18 months after losing both his legs and one of his arms in an IED explosion in Afghanistan, photographer Giles Duley has returned to work at the Paralympics. "I'm myself again," he tells NBC News' Baruch Ben-Chorin.
Related content:
Henri Cartier Bresson / AP
A signed photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson taken in 1948 in Srinagar, India was released by Christie's auction house, Sept. 4, 2012. One man alone was responsible for printing the vast majority of Cartier-Bresson’s black-and-white photos between 1967and 1997. In gratitude, Cartier-Bresson presented Voja Mitrovic with nearly 30 signed and inscribed photographs, some rarely seen by the public. They are to be auctioned in October in New York. Full story…
Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune
Shooting from the Hip street photography in Chicago, IL. Photograph taken with Hipstamatic on an iPhone.
A combination of chance, timing and an unobtrusive way of documenting communities.
Chicago Tribune staff photographer Scott Strazzante’s “Shooting from the Hip” blog features street-photography from the neighborhoods of Chicago with unpredictable compositions that offer a genuinely candid look at the people and their lifestyles.
Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune
Shooting from the Hip street photography in Chicago, IL. Photograph taken with Hipstamatic on an iPhone.
Key to Strazzante’s aesthetic is a method of shooting without always looking through the viewfinder. Despite the uncertainty that it can bring Strazzante says, “chance became one of the tools in my arsenal.”
Getting the shot while literally shooting from the hip is actually a well-honed skill. Scott began years ago with film cameras that had removable prisms which allowed him to compose while positioning the camera at high or low angles to get unique views. Not bringing the viewfinder up to his eye enables him to capture natural moments without his subjects reacting to his camera and also expands his field of vision.
“If I shot from the eye, I might be walking down the street and see a moment but as I’m lifting the camera to my eyes it might be gone. So now it’s almost just part of my thought process where I see it and I shoot it.”
Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune
Bus stop. Photograph taken with Hipstamatic on an iPhone.
Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune
Shooting from the Hip street photography in Chicago, IL. Photograph taken with Hipstamatic on an iPhone..
“One of the other byproducts for shooting from the hip is that I have a wider range of vision to see moments coming together. I can see the guy with the big Afro coming down the street while there’s a woman with a crutch coming in from this way and then there’s a person with a balloon so I can kind of wait till they all intersect.”
“I wanted my blog to be a little more free-flowing and just kind of my thoughts, but it kind of turned into more literally shooting from the hip. One of the things that I think over the years of being a newspaper photographer that started to grate on me was that every place I went outside of a sporting event, people knew I was there.”
“They knew they were being photographed. And obviously, that kind of influenced what they would do, they would either do something for the camera or they would have this knowing expression on their face that they were being photographed and for me that kind of ruined the photos.”
Strazzante started with the “shooting from the hip” method as a way to avoid that camera awareness of his subjects. “No one is putting on a show, even though they are in public, they still have a reality to it. There’s not any kind of influence from me because I’m just another pedestrian,” he said.
Scott Strazzante/ Chicago Tribune
After rushing for a career high 205 yards, Chicago Bears' Matt Forte meets Carolina Panthers' Steve Smith at midfield after Bears' 34-29 win in NFL game at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL on Sunday, October 2, 2011. Scott Strazzante took this picture by reaching around other photographers to get the right angle.
Additionally, Strazzante discovered a path to a newfound creativity along the way. “I came to realize that the compositions that I made that were more happenstance are more interesting than the ones that my brain could put together. I really enjoyed that surprise of, oh, this leg is in there framing this or, I got low enough for this, all this was in the frame.
One example of this came at the end of a Bears football game in which running back Matt Forté ran for over two hundred yards.“I knew I had to rush out on to the field and get some sort of post-game Matt Forté. photo.”
Scott Strazzante/ Chicago Tribune
Second version of the meeting between Matt Forte and Steve Smith. Photographer Scott Strazzante was able to line up the image after the media cleared.
After finding Forté mid-field with Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, surrounded by other media, Strazzante reached around another photographer to get the shot of the players together ( at left ) without looking through the viewfinder. “Matt Forte’s entire head was obliterated by sun, and then people kind of cleared out and then I moved over and I stepped into the correct exposure and I shot it with my eye. “
“I went back and I compared like the photo I took just kind of reaching down which I thought was a super creative and interesting, I really liked it and then I looked at the photo that my mind put together and it was just this boring expected newspaper image. It’s like what I’ve been trained over the years to make.”
“I have this kind of schizophrenic line in my work where I have my creative, out-of-control photographs from the iPhone or “shooting from the hip”. Then when I’m shooting through my-- with my eye, with my brain, sometimes I get trapped in this newspaper-world of all these years of expectations of editors telling me ‘the horizon can’t be crooked’ or ‘it has to be in focus’.”
“These things that have been ingrained in my head for years and years that I sometimes have a hard time mentally breaking through with that, and I feel I have all this freedom when I’m shooting for my blog that sometimes I forget to put into my daily work because my editors at the Tribune, they’re almost constantly telling me, Scott, please, be as creative with your daily assignment, as you are with your blog work because we like that.”
Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune
Photograph taken with Hipstamatic on an iPhone.
Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune
Maywood Park Racetrack in Melrose Park, IL
Strazzante borrowed his daughters iPhone on a family trip last year and was quickly hooked.
“In December I got my own iPhone and then it slowly replaced my professional cameras as my street photography weapon of choice. Then I started doing Instagram, and now I’ve completely stopped doing street photography with my normal camera. Now I just use the iPhone exclusively because I really just love the Instagram community and it’s been really a fun thing for me.”
“I feel that I have the right to photograph anyone on the street I want...but there will be some photographs that I won’t published because I just think they are almost cruel. So there are definitely some photographs I won’t publish, but there’s no photograph I won’t shoot because I just don’t know how it will turn out.”
Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune
Shooting from the Hip street photography in Chicago, IL.
Ernesto Bazan / Courtesy the artist via LOOK3
This past weekend the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, welcomed the photography community for LOOK3: Festival of the Photograph. Hundreds of beautiful and moving photos were on display as part of over a dozen exhibits and presentations, providing nuggets of inspiration around every corner. Even the trees along Charlottesville’s downtown mall were transformed into open-air galleries, as giant prints by David Doubilet hung between their branches.
During interviews and presentations, images depicting powerful stories were given additional meaning when the photographers candidly spoke about their own experience working on their project. Lynsey Addario presented a collection of her work of more than a decade on women’s rights in Afghanistan, rape in Congo and closing with maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. Her touching stories of compassion for her subjects moved the audience to a standing ovation.
As the festival concluded its fifth installment, there was no doubt about the power of photography in telling stories. While those with storied careers were celebrated, there was also a refreshing reminder about the importance of the future of photography for those getting into the field. Two of the featured photographers touched on this in their presentations. On opening night, Stanley Greene was asked about the fact that he frequently recommends the work of upcoming photographers to his own editors, even those working on the same topic as him. Greene responded:
I believe in the community of photography. I believe in the idea of photography. I believe we have to give each other a helping hand. It’s like passing a baton or the handing off of the torch. I think it’s important to bring up photographers who have fallen through the cracks. It’s important for all of us, when we discover talent, to try and help them.
Stanley Greene/NOOR via LOOK3
Kabul, Afghanistan - July 2008 -- Russian Cultural Center
Stanley Greene / NOOR via LOOK3
Soukh ash-Shouyoukh, Northern Iraq -- April 2004 -- Road side bombing attack on a pipe-line.
The following day, photographer Ernesto Bazan echoed Greene’s comments when he eloquently encouraged budding photographers to follow their passion. Bazan followed his to Cuba, which had led to 14 years of working and living in the country. He said:
Be imaginative, be curious, be surreal, be yourself.
Do not ever lean on preconceived ideas or established schemes.
Let doubt always hover on in your soul: it's so wise and beautiful to change your mind. Find your voice. As I like to say: Keep the rest of your body still attached to the your heart and soul. You are the future, our future.
While the LOOK3 events ended this past weekend, all the exhibits are open to the public and will be up through the rest of June. For the complete list of exhibits and details, visit the LOOK3 website. For a play-by-play of the photographer interviews and presentations, visit the LOOK3 blog.
Ernesto Bazan / Courtesy the artist via LOOK3
Horst Faas / AP
Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into the tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, Vietnam, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border in March 1965.
AP
In this 1967 file photo Associated Press photographer Horst Faas works in Vietnam.
Horst Faas / AP
Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Viet Cong fire at Bao Trai, about 20 miles west of Saigon, Vietnam, in January 1966.
Associated Press reports:
Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP - Getty Images
German photographer Horst Faas (C) and Vietnamese-American photographer Nick Ut (R) meet with Vietnamese photographer Dinh Dinh Phuoc during a party held, in this April 28, 2005, file photo in Ho Chi Minh-City. Ut under Faas's guidance won one of the news agency's six Vietnam War Pulitzer Prizes.
As chief of photo operations for The Associated Press in Saigon for a decade beginning in 1962, Horst Faas didn't just cover the fighting — he also recruited and trained new talent from among foreign and Vietnamese freelancers.
The result was "Horst's army" of young photographers, who fanned out with Faas-supplied cameras and film and stern orders to "come back with good pictures."
Faas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning combat photographer who carved out new standards for covering war with a camera and became one of the world's legendary photojournalists in nearly half a century with the AP, died Thursday in Munich, said his daughter, Clare Faas. He was 79.
Read more about the life and work of Horst Faas
Editor's note: Some images included in this post include graphic content.
Horst Faas / AP
A wounded U.S. soldier is given water on a battlefield in Vietnam. Faas was best known for covering Vietnam and won four major awards including the first of his two Pulitzers.
Horst Faas / AP
A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle. The child was killed as government forces pursued guerrillas into a village near the Cambodian border. This image is one of several shot by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas which earned him the first of two Pulitzer Prizes,
AP
In this May 11, 1965 file photo, Associated Press photographer Horst Faas tries to get back on a U.S. helicopter after a day out with Vietnamese rangers in a flooded plain of reeds.
Ammar Awad / Reuters
A Palestinian protester gets blasted with pepper spray, a Texas twister hits Dallas, the Kentucky Wildcats celebrate their basketball championship, lawmakers celebrate the end of another legislative session in Georgia and more.
We generally resist including more than one photograph from a news event in The Week in Pictures. That has something to do with the idea that we’re attempting to show images from the whole world each week. I realize that is laughably impossible. There is no way to show it all. Our goal is a little like navigating via the North Star. You know you’ll never get there, but it’s a good guide.
So, when we include more than one picture from an event we’re recognizing its importance, as we did this week with pictures from the tornados in Texas. The three picture sequence begins with an image pulled from video. It shows a semi-trailer being flung hundreds of feet into the air. Watch the video on that slideshow page. It’s incredible. The second tornado picture is Tom Pennington’s photo of a young couple sitting among the wreckage of their destroyed home. I’m attracted to this photo not because it shows strength, but because it shows love. It’s an example of how we cling to each other during the worst of times. We end the sequence with Khampha Bouaphanh’s wide view of the storm damage in a Lancaster, Texas neighborhood. The awful randomness of the path of destruction makes me wonder. It’s incredible that no one was killed in this storm.
The storm photos are incredible, but the image I’ll remember from this week is Stew Milne’s photo of Nicholas Weichel attending his father’s funeral. Nicholas’ dad is the Rhode Island National Guardsman who was killed while saving a child in Afghanistan. During my time as a news photographer I’ve had to cover a few funerals. It’s so difficult. You have to put your emotonal reactions aside and somehow make publishable pictures. It’s probably one of the most difficult assignments a photographer can get. Milne’s photo is a sensitive portrayal of a son’s loss without being intrusive.
Related photo features:
Previous episodes of The Week in Pictures from 2012
Weegee / Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery
Water Spray, ca. 1940. Vintage gelatin silver, printed c. 1940, 10 x 12 inches.
Matthew Brandt / Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery
Matthew Brandt, American Lake, WA C1, 2011, from the series Lakes and Reservoirs. C-print soaked in American Lake water.
Sally Mann / Courtesy Etherton Gallery
Shiva at Whistle Creek, 1992. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10 inches.
Julia Margaret Cameron / Courtesy Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1868 Albumen print from a wet collodion negative, 35.5 x 26.3 cm.
Most of us have become too accustomed to seeing photos from the comfort of our desk, as we quickly scan a glowing screen. Obviously, there are huge benefits to your favorite photographer being one Google search away, but it is important to remember that small details and subtleties can get lost in the inherent limitations of pixels and small monitors. Visiting the AIPAD (Assoc. of International Photography Art Dealers) photography show in New York City is a great reminder of the beauty of experiencing the printed image and the significant role photography has played in documenting history.
The show brings together top photo galleries from all over the world, as far away as China and as close as 57th street, each featuring their own specialty, from late 19th century photography pioneers to contemporary ones.
Henri Cartier-Bresson / Courtesy John Cleary Gallery
Rue Mouffetard, 1954, printed c. 1995. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 inches.
After walking through each gallery's booth, you end up with a survey of photography's diverse history, seeing many familiar names and iconic prints along the way. A beautiful Ansel Adams print is followed by a couple from Henri Cartier-Bresson, including his famous one of a man jumping over a puddle in Paris. Some names you may have seen published in PhotoBlog, including the vivid work of Alex Webb as well as that of Tim Hetherington, whose powerful portraits and film on American soldiers in Afghanistan earned him an Oscar nomination (he was killed almost a year ago while covering Libya).
While the AIPAD show makes you appreciate the physical print and its tangibility, it is also a glimpse into the world of art collecting. Little red stickers placed alongside a print's details, are a reminder that all the photos on display are for sale (in the case of the ones with the stickers, they have been sold). Whether you are there to shop or to appreciate, if you are in the NYC area the show is a refreshing visit and an excellent excuse to step away from modern technology to appreciate the older one.
Visiting AIPAD: The AIPAD show is open through Sunday, April 1 at the Park Avenue Armory; Admission is $25/daily; for more information visit the AIPAD Photography Show website.
Massimo Vitali / Courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery
Porto Miggiano, 2011. Chromogenic print, 86 x 72 inches.
Vivian Maier / Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery
Untitled (Couple Embracing with Checkered Clothing), ca. 1960s. Gelatin silver print, printed 2011, 20 x 16 inches.
Ryan Pierse / Getty Images
A dawn plunge in Australia, a soldier's homecoming in Alaska, a fiery firehouse in New Jersey, a tearful farewell in California and more.
Winter gets me down. The short days, cold temperatures, and all that time cooped up inside weighs on me by the time we’re getting ready to flip the calendar to April. Participating in this week’s picture edit provided a little break from the winter blues.
Spring comes on strong in this episode of The Week in Pictures. Photographer Scott Anderson gets us going with his picture of a robin catching her lunch in Wisconsin. Kimimasa Mayama made a great picture of the boys of summer at the first Major League Baseball game of the year, and Gary Cosby Jr. closes the slideshow with his lovely picture of Opal Cosby riding her bicycle right into an Alabama sunset.
As always, there are some difficult pictures in this week’s slideshow. Casey Christie’s image of a grieving woman at her fiancée’s funeral breaks your heart. It reminds me of how precious life is and how sometimes people are taken away before we get the opportunity to appreciate them.
Previous episodes of The Week in Pictures from 2012
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