World Press Photo Winner 2007
The Ultimate Photojournalist Award
The World Press Photo Contest is universally acknowledged as the number one accolade for any photojournalist to win. Now in its 51st year it has seen a record number of entries, over 80,000 images shot by more than 5,000 professional photographers from 125 countries.
There are ten individual categories and the main prize for overall image being judged by an international jury of professional photo editors, photographers and senior press agency editors.
This year’s award goes to the British photographer, Tim Hetherington who was on assignment in Afghanistan for Vanity Fair magazine. His image shows an American soldier resting in a bunker in the Korengal Valley, an area notorious for some of the most intense fighting seen in the country. It is a moving image, the young soldier is clearly shattered and it makes one wonder about the lives sacrificed on both sides of a conflict and wether any of it is really worth the suffering.
On a lighter note I was pleased to see that the photograph was taken using my camera of choice, the Canon EOS 5D which makes it seven years in a row for a photographer using Canon EOS equipment to win the top prize.
So congratulations to Tim, he wins €10,000 and courtesy of Canon Europe, the latest 21 million megapixel Canon EOS 1-DS MK111 camera worth a cool £5,500. Here’s the winning image….
Miles
A moving image indeed. I guess that good photography is about capturing an image that tells a story without having to verbalise it. Holding a moment in time…
Elsie
April 6, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
Esie,
Coudn’t have put it better myself, I have ong thought that we take images of war and violence for granted. Not only are people suffering as a result of it but somebody is risking their life to capture the moment in writing and pictures so that we may know about it from the comfort of our armchair.
Miles
April 6, 2008 @ 7:56 pm