RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘SlideShow’

Slideshow: Here are the 2020 World Press Photo nominees

26 Feb

Slideshow: Here are the 2020 World Press Photo nominees

Today, the World Press Photo Foundation announced the nominees for its 63rd annual contest. 4,282 photographers from 125 countries entered 73,996 images for consideration as either singles or stories across 8 categories. The nominees are 44 professional photographers based in 24 countries: Algeria, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.

17 photography professionals, chaired by Lekgetho Makola, made up the jury. Protests, political uprisings, and environmental issues were especially prevalent this past year as reflected in the nominations. In 2019, a new category was introduced: the World Press Photo Story of the Year.

The three nominees for the World Press Photo Story of the Year are:

  • ‘Hong Kong Unrest’
    Nicolas Asfouri (Denmark), Agence France-Presse
  • ‘Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Crash Site’
    Mulugeta Ayene (Ethiopia), Associated Press
  • ‘Kho, the Genesis of a Revolt’
    Romain Laurendeau (France)

The jury shortlisted six nominees for World Press Photo of the Year:

  • ‘Relative Mourns Flight ET 302 Crash Victim’
    Mulugeta Ayene (Ethiopia), Associated Press
  • ‘Clash with the Police During Anti-Government Demonstration’
    Farouk Batiche (Algeria), Deutsche Presse-Agentur
  • ‘Straight Voice’
    Yasuyoshi Chiba (Japan), Agence France-Presse
  • ‘Awakening’
    Tomek Kaczor (Poland), for Gazeta Wyborcza
  • ‘Injured Kurdish Fighter Receives Hospital Visit’
    Ivor Prickett (Ireland), for The New York Times
  • ‘Nothing Personal – the Back Office of War’
    Nikita Teryoshin (Russia)

The jury also nominated 3 single images and 3 stories across all eight categories: Contemporary Issues, General News, Environment, Nature, Long-Term Projects, Portraits, Spot News, and Sports. Winners will be announced at the Awards Show taking place on April 16th in Amsterdam. The World Press Photo Festival, featuring meetups and workshops, will follow on the 17th – 18th.

Starting April 18th, prize-winning entries will be exhibited throughout the year in 120 cities spanning 50 countries. The series of events is expected to draw at least 5 million people. A full calendar can be viewed here. For more information, visit www.worldpressphoto.org or follow the organization on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Injured Kurdish Fighter Receives Hospital Visit’ by Ivor Prickett (Ireland), for The New York Times

Caption: Ahmed Ibrahim (18), a badly burned SDF fighter, is visited by his girlfriend at a hospital in Al-Hasakah, Syria, on 20 October. She had at first been reluctant to enter the room, as she was horrified by his injuries, but a nurse persuaded her to go in to hold Ahmed’s hand and have a short conversation.

Story: By early 2019, the territory held by the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria had reduced to a four-square-kilometer patch in the southeast, centered on the village of Baghuz. The IS retreat from northern Syria had been under the onslaught of the combined militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and supported by an international coalition of primarily US troops.

As IS drew back, tens of thousands of people emerged from the enclave, many of them the wives and children of foreign IS fighters. Numerous IS fighters themselves surrendered or were captured. The Kurds were left with the conundrum of what to do with so many prisoners, many of them under 18 and orphaned or separated from their families. Then, at the beginning of October, US president Donald Trump ordered US troops out of northern Syria.

On 9 October, Turkey—which had long seen Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat, given the decades-long Kurdish insurgency against Turkey—invaded northern Syria, aiming to end Kurdish control over the territory. As Kurdish forces refocused their attention on a new opponent, the fate of the many thousands of prisoners grew even more uncertain.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Relative Mourns Flight ET 302 Crash Victim’ by Mulugeta Ayene (Ethiopia), Associated Press

Caption: A relative of a victim of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 throws dirt in her face as she grieves at the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 14 March 2019.

Story: On 10 March, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, a Boeing 737 MAX, disappeared from the radar six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa airport and crashed into a field, killing all 157 people on board. The impact was so great that both engines were buried in a crater 10 meters deep, and any human remains were almost impossible to identify.

On 14 November, eight months after the crash, the site of the impact was covered and the unidentified remains of victims buried in rows of identical coffins. Comparisons were made with the crash of a Lion Air aircraft, also a 737 MAX, 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta in October 2018. Countries across the world, initially with the exception of the US, grounded the 737 MAX.

First reports showed that pilots had been unable to prevent the plane repeatedly nosediving, despite following procedures recommended by Boeing. It appeared that in both cases pilots were struggling to deal with an automated safety system designed to prevent stalling, which was repeatedly pushing the nose of the plane down. It seemed that the system was being activated, possibly due to a faulty sensor, even though nothing was wrong.

It later emerged that American Airlines pilots had confronted Boeing about potential safety issues with the MAX. Boeing had resisted their calls but promised a software fix, which had not been done by the time Flight ET302 crashed. Planes remained grounded into 2020.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Clash with the Police During an Anti-Government Demonstration’ by Farouk Batiche (Algeria), Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Caption: Students scuffle with riot police during an anti-government demonstration in Algiers, Algeria, on 21 May.

Story: Algeria had been embroiled in protests since February. Initially, protests had been aimed at ousting long-time president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an 81-year-old veteran of Algeria’s independence struggle who had been in ill-health and not seen in public for some time. Bouteflika resigned in April, handing over to a military-backed caretaker government, but demonstrations continued.

Protesters demanded the cancellation of the presidential elections set to take place on 4 July and a return to civilian democracy. They also called for the departure of government officials associated with the Bouteflika administration, including the interim president and prime minister. Protests continued into 2020 without successful resolution.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Straight Voice’ by Yasuyoshi Chiba (Japan), Agence France-Presse

Caption: A young man, illuminated by mobile phones, recites a poem while protestors chant slogans calling for civilian rule, during a blackout in Khartoum, Sudan, on 19 June.

Story: Protests had begun in the eastern city of Atbara in December 2018, reportedly against the tripling of the price of bread, but then broadened in focus and had spread rapidly throughout the country. By April 2019, protesters were staging a sit-in close to army headquarters in the capital Khartoum, and demanding an end to the 30-year rule of dictator Omar al-Bashir.

On 11 April, al-Bashir was removed from office in a military coup, and a transitional military government was established. Protests continued, calling for power to be handed to civilian groups. On 3 June, government forces opened fire on unarmed protesters. Scores of people were killed and many more subject to further violence. Three days later the African Union suspended Sudan, in the midst of widespread international condemnation of the attack.

The authorities sought to defuse protests by imposing blackouts, and shutting down the internet. Protesters communicated by text message, word of mouth and using megaphones, and resistance to military rule continued. Despite another severe crackdown on 30 June, the pro-democracy movement was eventually successful in signing a power-sharing agreement with the military, on 17 August.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Awakening’ by Tomek Kaczor (Poland), for Du?y Format, Gazeta Wyborcza

Caption: A 15-year-old Armenian girl who has recently woken from catatonic state brought on by Resignation Syndrome, sits in a wheelchair, flanked by her parents, in a refugee reception center in Podkowa Le?na, Poland.

Story: Resignation Syndrome (RS) renders patients passive, immobile, mute, unable to eat and drink, incontinent and unresponsive to physical stimulus. It affects psychologically traumatized children in the midst of lengthy asylum processes, and seems most common in Roma and Yazidi children as well as those from the Balkans.

It was first noted in the late 1990s, and was thought to be confined to Sweden, though cases have since been reported in the offshore refugee detention center run by the Australian government in Nauru. Remission and gradual return to normal function occurs after life circumstances improve. The Armenian girl succumbed to RS while her family were trying for asylum in Sweden, but recovered eight months later after they had been deported to Poland.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: ‘Nothing Personal – the Back Office of War’ by Nikita Teryoshin (Russia)

Caption: A businessman locks away a pair of anti-tank grenade launchers at the end of an exhibition day, at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 18 February.

Story: IDEX is the biggest defense exhibition and conference in the Middle East, and one of the biggest arms trade-fairs in the world. No official attendance figures are released, but according to UAE state media the event drew 1,200 global defence specialists, 1,300 exhibitors and more than 105,000 visitors.

Attendees include defense ministers, military chiefs of staff and key government decision-makers, who interact in conference halls, social events and back-office meetings. War is staged in an artificial environment where mannequins and screen images take the place of real people, and with outdoor demonstrations and daily choreographed battle displays on water.

2020 World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: ‘Hong Kong Unrest’ by Nicolas Asfouri (Denmark), Agence France-Presse

Caption: A man holds a poster in Shatin, Hong Kong, as people gather to sing a protest song, on 11 September 2019.

Story: Protests began to be held in Hong Kong at the end of March in response to government proposals to amend existing legislation and allow extradition to mainland China. Anti-government demonstrations gathered momentum over the following weeks as pro-democracy groups united, with students playing a large role in protests and in human-chain rallies.

On 12 June, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered around the Legislative Council building ahead of a debate on the extradition laws, and met with violent opposition from police. Protests continued to escalate, both in frequency and size, as did police counter-measures. The authorities banned the wearing of face masks, and at a demonstration on 1 October, the day marking the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the People’s Republic of China, police fired live ammunition at protesters for the first time.

After initially proposing postponements and amendments to legislation, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam eventually announced that she would withdraw the bill. This was done on 23 October, but protesters’ demands had broadened to include implementation of genuine universal suffrage and release of arrested protestors, and unrest continued into 2020.

2020 World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: ‘Hong Kong Unrest’ by Nicolas Asfouri (Denmark), Agence France-Presse

Caption: Students cross a road to school after participating in a human-chain rally, in Hong Kong, on 12 September 2019.

Story: Protests began to be held in Hong Kong at the end of March in response to government proposals to amend existing legislation and allow extradition to mainland China. Anti-government demonstrations gathered momentum over the following weeks as pro-democracy groups united, with students playing a large role in protests and in human-chain rallies.

On 12 June, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered around the Legislative Council building ahead of a debate on the extradition laws, and met with violent opposition from police. Protests continued to escalate, both in frequency and size, as did police counter-measures. The authorities banned the wearing of face masks, and at a demonstration on 1 October, the day marking the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the People’s Republic of China, police fired live ammunition at protesters for the first time.

After initially proposing postponements and amendments to legislation, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam eventually announced that she would withdraw the bill. This was done on 23 October, but protesters’ demands had broadened to include implementation of genuine universal suffrage and release of arrested protestors, and unrest continued into 2020.

2020 World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: ‘Hong Kong Unrest’ by Nicolas Asfouri (Denmark), Agence France-Presse

Caption: A woman holds up an umbrella (a symbol of protest) during protests in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, on 1 October 2019.

Story: Protests began to be held in Hong Kong at the end of March in response to government proposals to amend existing legislation and allow extradition to mainland China. Anti-government demonstrations gathered momentum over the following weeks as pro-democracy groups united, with students playing a large role in protests and in human-chain rallies.

On 12 June, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered around the Legislative Council building ahead of a debate on the extradition laws, and met with violent opposition from police. Protests continued to escalate, both in frequency and size, as did police counter-measures. The authorities banned the wearing of face masks, and at a demonstration on 1 October, the day marking the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the People’s Republic of China, police fired live ammunition at protesters for the first time.

After initially proposing postponements and amendments to legislation, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam eventually announced that she would withdraw the bill. This was done on 23 October, but protesters’ demands had broadened to include implementation of genuine universal suffrage and release of arrested protestors, and unrest continued into 2020.

2020 World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: ‘Kho, the Genesis of a Revolt’ by Romain Laurendeau (France)

Caption: An old man sits on a staircase in Bab el-Oued, Algiers, Algeria, on 31 May 2014.

Story: Young people make up more than half of Algeria’s population, and according to a UNESCO report 72% of people under 30 in Algeria are unemployed. Pivotal moments in Algerian history, such as the ‘Black October’ revolt of 1988, have had angry youth at their core. Black October was harshly suppressed—more than 500 people were killed in five days—and was followed by a ‘black decade’ of violence and unrest. Thirty years on, the effects of that decade are still present. In a traumatized country, high unemployment leads to boredom and frustration in everyday life and many young people feel disassociated from the state and its institutions.

In neglected working-class neighbourhoods such as Bab el-Oued in Algiers, young people often seek refuge in diki—private places that are ‘bubbles of freedom’ away from the gaze of society and from conservative social values. But the sense of community and solidarity is often not enough to erase the trials of poor living conditions. In February 2019, thousands of young people from working-class neighbourhoods again took to the streets in what became a nationwide challenge to the reign of long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Kho (the word means ‘brother’ in colloquial North-African Arabic) is about the genesis of a revolt. It is the story of the deep unease of youth, who, by daring to challenge authority, inspired the rest of the population to join their action, giving birth to the largest protest movement in Algeria in decades.

2020 World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: ‘Kho, the Genesis of a Revolt’ by Romain Laurendeau (France)

Caption: Football fans sing during a championship match in the 5 July 1962 Stadium in Algiers, Algeria, on 22 December 2015.

Story: Young people make up more than half of Algeria’s population, and according to a UNESCO report 72% of people under 30 in Algeria are unemployed. Pivotal moments in Algerian history, such as the ‘Black October’ revolt of 1988, have had angry youth at their core. Black October was harshly suppressed—more than 500 people were killed in five days—and was followed by a ‘black decade’ of violence and unrest. Thirty years on, the effects of that decade are still present. In a traumatized country, high unemployment leads to boredom and frustration in everyday life and many young people feel disassociated from the state and its institutions.

In neglected working-class neighbourhoods such as Bab el-Oued in Algiers, young people often seek refuge in diki—private places that are ‘bubbles of freedom’ away from the gaze of society and from conservative social values. But the sense of community and solidarity is often not enough to erase the trials of poor living conditions. In February 2019, thousands of young people from working-class neighbourhoods again took to the streets in what became a nationwide challenge to the reign of long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Kho (the word means ‘brother’ in colloquial North-African Arabic) is about the genesis of a revolt. It is the story of the deep unease of youth, who, by daring to challenge authority, inspired the rest of the population to join their action, giving birth to the largest protest movement in Algeria in decades.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee, Nature Singles: ‘Roadrunner Approaching the Border Wall’ by Alejandro Prieto (Mexico)

Caption: A greater roadrunner approaches the border wall at Naco, Arizona, USA on 28 April.

Story: The wall along the US border with Mexico, championed by US president Donald Trump, will run through one of the most biologically rich and diverse regions of North America, disrupting animal corridors, their habitats and access to water and food. More than 1,000 km of the 3,100 km-long border is closed by such barricades, with the president proposing a further 800 km by early 2021. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has warned that the impermeable barrier, associated human activity, and all-night bright lights could negatively impact 23 endangered and at-risk species.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee, Contemporary Issues Singles: ‘Hitler’s Birthday / Easter Weekend’ by Mark Peterson (United States), Redux Images for New York

Caption: Members of the white supremacist group Shield Wall Network celebrate Hitler’s birthday, on Lake Dardanelle, Arkansas, USA, on 20 April.

Story: Right-wing extremist activity has grown in the US over the past decade, according to a study published by Washington-based think-tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The study points to the rise in internet and social media use by far-right groups, connections between local and international groups, and political developments in the US as major contributing factors.

Although the rise began before Donald Trump began campaigning for the US presidency, the study suggests that individuals have been energized by his election. In September, US Homeland Security named white supremacy a leading terrorist threat. FBI director Christopher Wray later told the House Judiciary Committee that far-right activity posed a steady threat of violence to the US.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee, Sports Singles: ‘Liverpool Champions League Victory Parade’ by Oli Scarff (United Kingdom), Agence France-Presse

Caption: A trophy-shaped balloon floats over the crowd in Liverpool, England, as football fans line the streets on 2 June during the open-top bus parade celebrating Liverpool’s win against Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League final.

Story: Some 750,000 fans turned out for the parade, according to Merseyside Police. The 2-0 win at the Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid, Spain, the day before, delivered the first trophy for Liverpool since winning the English Football League Cup in 2012, and the first win in seven finals for coach Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool last won the UEFA Champions League in 2005.

2020 World Press Photo of the Year Nominee, Environment Singles: Battling the Marsh Fire by Noah Berger (United States), for Associated Press

Caption: Firefighters battle the Marsh Complex Fire, near the town of Brentwood, California, USA on 3 August.

Story: The Marsh Complex Fire began near Marsh Creek Road in Contra Costa County on 3 August and burned until 7 August, laying waste to more than 300 hectares of land. Roughly 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) burned state-wide in California in 2019, compared with 765,000 in 2018, and 525,000 in 2017. California usually has a fire season in the fall, when strong winds blow across forests and brushland that has dried out from summer heat and not yet experienced winter rains.

Many scientists attributed the early fires to the climate crisis, saying that a warmer atmosphere means that the vegetation is drying out more than it did a century ago. Old, faulty equipment belonging to the state’s largest electricity companies has also been blamed for sparking fires in windy weather. President Donald Trump accused the Californian state government of bad forest management, saying that was the cause of the fires.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Here are the 2020 World Press Photo nominees

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: Sony World Photography Awards 2020 finalist and shortlisted photographs

13 Feb

Sony World Photography Awards 2020 finalist and shortlisted photographs

The World Photography Organisation has announced the finalists and shortlisted photographers for its 13th annual Professional competition. The Sony World Photography Awards, 2020, received 345,000 entries from 203 territories for its 4 competitions, with 135,000 entered across 10 categories for Professional – the highest number to date. A new category, Environment, was introduced this year to raise more awareness around this increasingly important topic.

Photographers submitted entries as a series that consisted of 5-10 photographs. Finalist and shortlisted projects represent a diverse array of techniques, subject matter, and presentation methods that shed light on critical and little-known issues around the world. Projects from the Professional competition, along with Sony Professional Grant 2019 recipients, will be on display at Somerset House from April 17th to May 7th. The overall Photographer of the Year 2020 will be selected from the pool of Professional finalists and announced at the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 ceremony in London on April 16th.

The 15 images presented in this slideshow were chosen from a group of 123. You are highly encouraged to check them all out. The 2021 competitions for Professional, Open, Youth and Student will start accepting entries on June 1st.

Professional competition, Sport, Shortlist, 2020: ‘19.01.19’ by Anton Dotsenko (Belarus)

Image Description: For an instance, the one approach that was chosen by Kirill Tereshin in form of injection into his arms consisting of substances only known to him, removal of which could lead to fatal outcome. Bodybuilding is the most practical form of Bigorexia nowadays.

Series Name: Bigorexia

Series Description: Bigorexia (arlso known as muscle dysmorphia) is a new phenomenon in the sports and fashion industries. This anxiety disorder causes individuals to believe that their bodies are small and lacking in muscle, despite the fact that many sufferers could be described as big and muscular. The condition can affect both men and women, but often goes undiagnosed.

Sufferers choose different approaches to build up muscles, from compulsively working out in the gym to injecting themselves with mystery substances. Some of these methods are dangerous, and occasionally deadly.

Professional competition, Still Life, Shortlist, 2020: ’04_Specimen07′ by Cecilia Manzanares Vargas (Mexico)

Image Description: “Log entry.

The specimen has reached its adult stage. Awaiting to be classified.”

—

In one of his aphorisms, Nietzsche states that “The real world is much smaller than the imaginary.” By that premise, which I return to constantly, and the curiosity I have had for the vegetal world, its textures and shapes since I was a child, is that ‘Specimen 07’ is born; a photographic series in which the apparently defined boundaries between vegetal and animal are diluted, get mixed, giving birth to beings from the imaginary that I have built in a kitchen, made by vegetable fragments that lose their original identity and acquire another one when joined.

In this series, the stages of development of one of these specimens is shown.

With this project, I question the way in which we see the ordinary and how we perceive reality.

Series Name: Specimen 07

Series Description: ‘Log entry. The specimen has reached its adult stage. Awaiting to be classified.’ In one of his aphorisms, Friedrich Nietzsche states: ‘The real world is much smaller than the imaginary’. I return to this premise constantly, as it expresses the curiosity I have for the textures and shapes of the vegetal world – something that has intrigued me since childhood. Specimen 07 is a photographic series in which the apparently defined boundaries between vegetal and animal are diluted and mixed together, giving birth to beings that originate in the imagination, and are created from vegetable fragments in my kitchen. These fragments lose their original identity, acquiring a new one when joined. This series shows the stages of development of one of these specimens.

Professional competition, Portraiture, Finalist, 2020: ‘Sephora’ by Denis Rouvre (France)

Image Description: My name is Sephora, I live in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One morning, a prophet came to our house and accused me of being a witch. At Mama Olangi’s Church, I went through all kinds of exorcism rites, with the agreement of my aunt who made me fast every day from 6 am to 6 pm. She hit me, I had become the slave of the house. I was no longer even allowed to sit beside her children: she was afraid that I would “eat” them or that I would initiate them.

One day my aunt made me sit by her side. She suddenly became very loving and maternal and served me food. I had doubts and managed to spill a glass of water in the food. In his anger, cruel confessions escaped from his mouth: “If you had eaten, you would have ended up in the morgue today.”

I ran away and went to live on the street. I’ve been on the street since the age of 10. One day, boys older than me approached me. I refused to follow them, they took me by force and raped me, I became pregnant. Today I have two five year old twins.

Series Name: Unsung Heroes

Series Description: ‘Unsung Heroes’ is a project about violence against women around the world. In 2019, with support from international humanitarian association Médecins du Monde, I visited five continents and met more than 100 victims of violence. The women agreed to testify, their faces uncovered, in front of my camera. Some subjects had suffered violence linked to displacement following the war in Syria and in Colombia, others had survived domestic abuse, or the use of collective rape as a weapon in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Still more had faced moral violence, sexual exploitation, or discrimination against gender identity in Nepal, Cameroon and Uganda.

The women I met are shadows that enter the light. The bruises and creases on the surface of their skin tell a story. Added to this are the voices, the words, the intimate experiences of violence that were shared. I wanted to show the suffering experienced by these women, but also their strength and resilience – in short, their ability to get up and fight again.

Professional competition, Portraiture, Shortlist, 2020: ‘Hanoi fish man’ by Jon Enoch (United Kingdom)

Image Description: A man poses with his scooter in Hanoi with a delivery of pet fish, taken at the start of 2019. The riders have an amazing ability to transport all wonder of goods in amazing quantities. I spent a week chasing down amazing looking riders and their cargos and convincing them to pose for the camera.

Series Name: Bikes of Hanoi

Series Description: Delivery drivers on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam, use their amazing balance skills to deliver goods to shops and vendors across the city. Some riders sell directly from their bikes. New legislation plans to ban motorbikes from the city by 2030 in a bid to improve air quality and reduce congestion.

In addition to this, the country’s rapid economic expansion is leading to an increased use of vans for commercial deliveries. When I read about this, it struck me that the age-old art of riding an overloaded bike might be coming to an end. As a result, I spent a week in Hanoi, chasing down riders and convincing them to pose for the camera. Their cargoes included footballs, water, car parts, eggs, pet fish and ice.

Professional competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Shortlist, 2020: ‘At the Pink planet’ by Yevhen Samuchenko (Ukraine)

Image Description: Lemurian salt lake, Ukraine

Series Name: At the Pink planet

Series Description: The first time you see the pink salt lakes of the Kherson region in Ukraine it feels as though you are looking at another planet. During the summer months, microscopic algae causes the water to turn pink and red. The view from above is literally out of this world, which is why I chose to use a drone to convey the atmosphere of this unusual place.

Professional competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Finalist, 2020: ‘robber fly 5x’ by Adalbert Mojrzisch (Germany)

Image Description: A robber fly viewed at 5x magnification

Series Name: Macro

Series Description: Most of my subjects are found dead on windowsills or in zoological gardens – in that sense you could say they are unremarkable. At first glance the insects appear grey and dirty, but when viewed at high magnifications (usually between 5x and 80x) interesting structures and beautiful colours begin to emerge.

Recording such fine detail requires specialist equipment, some of which I have developed and assembled myself. I use a homemade photo-tube, and microscope-lenses corrected to infinity, mounted on a homemade rail. The subject is lit via four flashes triggered by a homemade controller. Each image is a composite of between 200 and 600 individual pictures stacked and stitched together. The calculations are made using Zerene Stacker.

Professional competition, Landscape, Shortlist, 2020: ‘Urban Explorers – tunnel/05’ by Jeroen van Dam (Netherlands)

Image Description: Within this daunting urban landscape, there is always a human factor: a single person in his or her (un)natural habitat.

Series Name: Urban Explorers

Series Description: This project is about the secret life of urban explorers – people who venture into hidden manmade landscapes. The places these individuals explore are often in the middle of cities, and yet off-limits and unknown to the public. There are risks involved in accessing these locations, but urban explorers like to leave a place as they find it – their motto is ‘Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.’

I follow these people all over the world documenting their adventures. This particular series features tunnel systems, which are often intriguing and architecturally pleasing due to their circular shapes and massive scale. Photographing someone in such an unnatural setting really appeals to me. These urban locations lend themselves to aggressive postproduction, moody tones and vivid colours – the overall effect is one that questions our relationship with the city.

Professional competition, Landscape, Finalist, 2020: ‘Japanese concentration camp site #05’ by Chang Kyun Kim (United States)

Image Description: The lower part of the image shows the massive grids where the prison barracks of Topaz War Relocation Center that incarcerated 10,000 Japanese people living in U.S. were constructed. I tried to show the long lasting artifact and the harsh landscape that surrounds the camp site. It was taken with my drone in Nov 2019 in Delta, Utah.

Series Name: New Home (Japanese concentration camp sites in U.S.)

Series Description: This series is about Japanese internment camps that were built in remote and harsh areas of the United States during the Second World War. These camps imprisoned 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry – more than 60% of them were U.S. citizens.

Working on the project reminded me of the racial antagonism we have witnessed in recent history, and led me to consider how radically our view can alter when war and terror affect our lives. History can always be repeated if not properly recalled or told. The pictures here were taken between 2018 and ‘19 in California, Arizona and Utah. For the aerial shots, I used a drone to capture the camp sites – these locations are so harsh and remote that no one would try building anything here.

Professional competition, Environment, Finalist, 2020: ‘Siberia Lettuce’ by Luca Locatelli (Italy)

Image Description: The great indoors provides optimal growing conditions for lettuce and other leafy greens at Siberia B.V. in Maasbree, Netherlands. Each acre in the greenhouse yields as much lettuce as 10 outdoor acres and cuts the need for chemicals by 97 percent.

Series Name: THE FUTURE OF FARMING

Series Description: By 2050 our planet will be home to as many as ten billion people. If increases in agricultural yield are not achieved, a billion or more people could face starvation. Today, however, technology proposes a solution. For centuries, greenhouses have been used to shield crops and maximise yield, but in recent years technological advances have led to a revolution in food production.

This series portrays some of the most promising high-tech agro farming systems in the world – systems that may allow us to reduce dependency on water by as much as 90% and, in some cases, almost completely eliminate the use of chemical pesticides on plants in greenhouses. It’s a possible solution to the hunger crisis that may emerge in future decades, but a dystopic view of the future of farming.

Professional competition, Environment, Finalist, 2020: ‘Wahala 7’ by Robin Hinsch (Germany)

Image Description: Natural Gas Flaring Site in Ughelli, Niger Delta, Nigeria.

Series Name: Wahala

Series Description: Covering 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq miles) of wetlands, the Niger Delta was formed primarily by sediment deposition. The region is home to more than thirty million people and 40 different ethnic groups, making up 7.5% of Nigeria’s total land mass. It used to boast an incredibly rich ecosystem, containing one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet, before the oil industry moved in. The Nigerian department of petroleum resources estimates that 1.89 million barrels were spilled in to the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996. What’s more, a report from the United Nations suggests there have been a total of 6,817 spills between 1976 and 2001, amounting to some three million barrels of oil.

So far, the authorities and oil companies have done little to clean up and neutralise the Delta, and oil spills are still very common. Half of the spills are caused by pipeline and tanker accidents, while others are the result of sabotage (28%), oil production operations (21%), and inadequate production equipment (1%). Another issue in the Niger Delta is gas flaring, a byproduct of oil extraction. As the gas burns it destroys crops, pollutes water and has a negative impact on human health. Wahala was shot in Nigeria in 2019 and draws attention to untamed economic growth and its negative impact on ecology.

Professional competition, Documentary, Shortlist, 2020: ‘SN7’ by Nicholas Moir (Australia)

Image Description: a lone fire truck with a wall of flame and a fire tornado when the Green Wattle fire erupted out of the bush and hit properties in Sydney south west

Series Name: The burning

Series Description: A three-year drought, combined with staff cuts and political debate over the effectiveness of hazard-reduction-burn (a deliberately-lit fire intended to reduce the fuel available for a wildfire) has led to a series of catastrophic bushfires in Australia. These fires have killed 20 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of native animals. These pictures show several of the largest and most intense fires in South East Australia.

Professional competition, Discovery, Shortlist, 2020: ‘sand elephants memories’ by Massimo Gurrieri (Italy)

Image Description: Memories, dust, religion and pollution, kumbh-mela 2019.

Series Name: Tutto Scorre, India’s flow

Series Description: India is a country that never sleeps; a land that reawakens the senses and encourages people to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Traveling the roads here is as much an inner as an outer journey. Daily life unfolds, interspersed with religious rituals. Embarking on a walk allows thoughts from the depths to rise to the surface. The cold, the night, the fog, an awakening – anyone who visits India can choose to see metaphor or reality. I choose both, following the flow of events as I transform my experiences into images.

Professional competition, Creative, Shortlist, 2020: ‘Rumi and Scarlet, 2019’ by Joseph Ford (United Kingdom)

Image Description: I’ve photographed a range of ages for this project, and the idea of recreating a messy teenager’s bedroom appealed to me.

I prepared by posing a model in a jumper covered in gaffer tape. I added accessories around him, drawing matching lines on the taped jumper. I then photographed the annotated top and marked it up with colour indications. This gave me a model to brief the knitter, allowing precise placement of lines to match the accessories.

Series Name: Invisible Jumpers

Series Description: I’m a big fan of optical illusions. For this series I matched people to their surroundings through custom-made knitwear. Knitting is the ultimate analogue medium, complete with imperfections and replete with detail. At a time when it’s often assumed that any photographs out of the ordinary are the result of Photoshop or CGI, it’s satisfying to work with a slow, hand-crafted medium. The results aren’t perfect – there are often bits that don’t match up. Each of these pictures took weeks to research and plan. I worked with an amazing knitter, Nina Dodd, who hand-made all of the knitwear.

Each picture began with an idea – could I photograph someone blending into cherry blossom, or disappearing into a cliff edge, for example. With a concept in mind I would then set out in search of the perfect location, before coming up with a brief detailing how the design should match the background. The locations needed to be eye-catching, but simple enough to be translated into knitwear. They also needed to be places that weren’t going to change too fast, as the knitting takes a few weeks. It would be terrible to prepare a sweater and then not be able to get the shot because the location has altered beyond recognition.

Professional competition, Creative, Shortlist, 2020: ‘XT1876’ by Reuben Wu (United States)

Image Description: Salar de Uyuni

Series Name: FIELD OF INFINITY

Series Description: Field of Infinity is a continuation of my personal project, Lux Noctis, a series of photographs depicting landscapes unbound by time and space. These pictures are influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, 19th century sublime romantic painting and science fiction. Every day we are overwhelmed by beautiful images of the familiar. In my work, I imagine these scenes transformed into undiscovered landscapes that renew our perceptions of the world. I recently had the opportunity to continue my series in Bolivia during a week-long road trip. I photographed in remote and extreme locations using a Phase One XT camera and a drone modified with a powerful LED light to illuminate the landscapes at night.

Professional competition, Architecture, Finalist, 2020: ‘IX – Of the Formalisms I series’ by José De Rocco (Argentina)

Image Description: Walls to the step…

Series Name: Formalisms I

Series Description: As a graphic designer, I’m drawn to bold colours and shapes. Formalisms I is the result of three years walking the streets and searching for beauty in places that most people pass by. I tend to take a record shot when I spot something interesting, and then return repeatedly until I get what I need. Form is the main theme for this series, but colour is really important too. Most of the pictures were taken in Argentina, except one that was made in Uruguay.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Sony World Photography Awards 2020 finalist and shortlisted photographs

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: International Garden Photographer of the Year’s winner and finalists

11 Feb

International Garden Photographer of the Year’s winner and finalists

On February 7th, the winners and finalists for Competition 13 of the International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) awards were announced at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Over 20,000 entries were received from amateur and professional photographers all over the world. The winner of £7,500 and the title of Overall Winner is Albert Ceolan of South Tyrol, Italy. “Over the last few years, IGPOTY has been a source of inspiration for me as well as a great pleasure for the eyes and the soul. The thought that one of my images will be shown as overall winner in these mythical gardens fills me with enthusiasm and pride,” said Ceolan when his was given the news.

“Albert has documented a scene which is simultaneously shocking as it is well composed. The photo cleverly shows both the destruction and the remaining trees symbolising hope. IGPOTY introduced the new category ‘Plants & Planet’ for this very reason to stimulate discussion and arouse awareness of changing global weather and our current climate emergency. By running this category – IGPOTY entrants helped to plant 78 new trees via WeForest in the Brazil project, which focuses on reconnecting remaining patches of the Atlantic forest through forest corridors so that wildlife can continue to reproduce and thrive,” said Tyrone McGlinchey, the competitions Head Judge.

This year, IGPOTY introduced a new photo project, ‘Square Crop,’ along with a new main category ‘Plants & Planet.’ Image above is ‘Autumn Fragility’ by Jane Simmonds.

IGPOTY was established in 2007 and is now one of the world’s most renowned photography competitions. Winning entries are exhibited around the United Kingdom, Europe, and the world. As always, it was difficult to choose only 15 photos to display on DPReview. All winners, finalists, and commended entries across the 9 categories and 4 photo projects of this competition can be viewed here.

IGPOTY Overall Winner: ‘The Vaia Storm’ by Albert Ceolan (Italy)

About this photo: This photograph documents the natural destruction of pine forest by storm ‘Vaia’ in late October 2018. Wind speeds peaked at over 120mph, which led to the felling of over 14 million trees and claimed 17 human lives. In the background stands the magnificent Mount Catinaccio, bearing witness to the storm at just under 3,000 metres high.

Location: The Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy

IGPOTY 1st Place, Abstract Views: ‘Fish Pond Fantasy’ by Maggie Lambert (United Kingdom)

About this photo: Scarborough Art Gallery was reflected in the garden’s fish pond, which created an intriguing mix of hard and fluid surfaces and various textures, overlaid by the shapes of pondweed and fishes.

Location: Scarborough Art Gallery, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

IGPOTY 3rd Place, Abstract Views: ‘Tragopogon porrifolius’ by Viktor Sykora (Czech Republic)

About this photo: I used a scanning electron microscope to produce this detailed abstract view of a Tragopogon porrifolius seed. To gain the abstract element I used advanced filters and applied false colours.

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

IGPOTY 1st Place, Beautiful Gardens: ‘Summer Reverie’ by Jacky Parker (United Kingdom)

About this photo: Echinacea ‘Salsa Red’ were the brilliant red stars of this beautiful summer palette of colours taken at the gardens of the New Forest Lavender Farm. I captured a double exposure to soften the grasses and create an evocative botanical daydream.

Location: New Forest Lavender Farm, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

IGPOTY Commended, Beautiful Gardens: ‘Notes of Tea Garden’ by Ming Li (China)

About this photo: Fujian Province is home to many tea plantations, this one looked even more amazing with its colours and patterns from a bird’s-eye view, which I achieved using my drone.

Location: Fujian Province, China

IGPOTY 1st Place, Breathing Spaces: ‘Larch Basin Dawn’ by Thorsten Scheuermann (United States)

About this photo: The light of dawn on the horizon was enough to make the burnt autumn colour of the Larix (larch) trees in the North Cascades Mountains glow.

Location: North Cascades National Park, Washington, United States

IGPOTY Finalist, Breathing Spaces: ‘Mountain Arrows’ by Mauro Battistelli (Italy)

About this photo: In this vast desert landscape the sharp shards of the mountains contrasted wonderfully with the yellow and green hues of the foliage below.

Location: Salta Province, Argentina

IGPOTY 1st Place, Greening the City: ‘Burst’ by Brandon Yoshizawa (United States)

About this photo: The sunset gave its parting burst over Seattle illuminating the highways and making the intertwined trees and foliage glow across the city.

Location: Seattle, Washington, United States

IGPOTY 2nd Place, Plants & Planet: ‘Grass Tree’ by Anne Neiwand (Australia)

About this photo: This amazing individual specimen of Xanthorrhoea (grass tree) is endemic to the harsh conditions in South Australia. I chose to create a panoramic image to incorporate more of the landscape and emphasise the connection between every plant and our planet.

Location: Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia, Australia

IGPOTY 2nd Place, The Beauty of Plants: ‘Summertime’ by Danièle Dugré (Germany)

About this photo: I captured this photograph last summer at BUGA (Federal German Garden Show) in Heilbronn.
There was almost 40 hectares of wasteland between the old course of the River Neckar and the canal which have been redesigned using every type of gardening skill.

I was very impressed by these beautiful backlit flowerbeds, interplanted with tactile grasses, that poured out the scent of summer.

Location: Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

IGPOTY 1st Place, Trees, Woods & Forests: ‘Swamp Elder’ by Thorsten Scheuermann (United States)

About this photo: A stately Taxodium distichum (swamp cypress) tree stood at home on a calm, autumn afternoon in the wetlands surrounded by a ring of their characteristic roots or as I like to call them – knees above water.

Location: Louisiana, United States

IGPOTY 1st Place, Wildflower Landscapes: ‘The Beauty of Spring’ by Zhigang Li (China)

About this photo: The Napahai Nature Reserve, which at an altitude of around 3,300 metres above sea level, is a winter resting spot for tens of thousands of migratory birds as well as a summer pasture for herdsmen.

It was Spring when I captured this pastoral scene full of colourful wildflowers, shapes and textures.

Location: Mountains in Diqing, Yunnan, China

IGPOTY 1st Place, Wildflower Landscapes: ‘Heaven’s Route’ by Mauro Battistelli (Italy)

About this photo: I captured a long exposure on this picturesque coastline, with wild Echium anchored on the clifftop in the foreground, and the sea beyond was foaming around the unique rock formations.

Location: Playa de la Arnía, Cantabria, Spain

IGPOTY 2nd Place, Wildlife in the Garden: ‘The Meeting’ by Henrik Spranz (Croatia)

About this photo: I captured a chance morning meeting between these two Aporia crataegi (black veined white butterflies) as they perched on a flower head of Dianthus carthusianorum subsp. sanguineus.

Location: Pazin, Istria, Croatia

IGPOTY Highly Commended, Wildlife in the Garden: ‘A Spider’s Path’ by Carlo Cinthi (Italy)

About this photo: For such a tiny spider in the garden, every raindrop became a giant obstacle as it continued its journey along this blade of grass.

Location: Milan, Italy

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: International Garden Photographer of the Year’s winner and finalists

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: Agora’s #Photojournalism2020 winner and finalists

06 Feb

Slideshow: Agora’s #Photojournalism2020 winner and finalists

Agora, a free-to-use photography app, received 12,321 submissions for its #Photojournalism2020 competition from amateur and professional photographers all over the world. Rene Bernal’s (@renebernal) ‘Young guns,’ a photo depicting a group of Filipino children playing with toy guns they discovered atop a dumpsite, received the most votes and was declared the winner. A $ 1,000 cash prize was awarded to Bernal.

2019 was a pivotal year for political protests, uprisings, and climate change awareness. This inspired the team at Agora to launch its very first photojournalism contest. ‘People who manage to be in the right place at the right time can become potential journalists for all Humanity. Through #Photojournalism2020, we aim to discover the best informative images by people worldwide. Everyone owns a camera, and can create interesting content,’ said Octavi Royo, Agora’s CEO and Co-Founder.

It was difficult to choose 14 other photos to feature in this article as they are all compelling. All Top 50 #Photojournalism photos can be viewed here or in the video, above. Agora currently has 6 contests running on its app where users can win a $ 1,000 cash prize. The title of the photo followed by the Agora username and country of origin is featured here. All captions are the photographer’s own words.

#Photojournalism2020 Winner: ‘Young guns’ by @renebernal (Philippines)

About this photo: Self-taught filipino photographer @renebernal shot this staggering photo in a dumpster in San Dionisio, a district located in the southern part of Metro Manila. His photo collected the most votes on the Agora app and won him a $ 1,000 cash prize.

In Rene’s own words: “Everywhere in the world, children are increasingly exposed to guns, whether real ones or just toys, causing much worry to parents and to the community in general. I was amazed to see these children who were playing in a dumpsite located right in the middle of Paranaque City. They were totally oblivious of the hazards of their recreation. Indeed, a poignant reminder of how these children are able to find ways to enjoy their childhood, even in the most distressing environments.

I feel so lucky and happy to have won this contest as I would like to use this prize money towards my daughters’ education, and will donate part of it to the less fortunate children living in the slums. Discovering Agora gave me a chance to showcase my art and hopefully inspire others. I am very grateful for Agora that enables us to hear other people’s stories through photos.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Revolting Tears’ by @notsotoya (Lebanon)

About this photo: “What’s happening now in Lebanon is necessary to document since our TV stations are biased and do not portray the reality of the people in the streets. This is why I took personal initiative to always be on the streets photo documenting to portray the closest image to reality. Warlords are now controlling the fate of Lebanese citizens.

From 29 years till now the country has been economically deteriorating under the absence of the Lebanese government. The woman in the picture is the embodiment of our economy and her tears shed as she witnessed the revolt that the people took to the streets in hope of a better country,” explains @notsotoya.

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Hoisting’ by @øystein (Norway)

About this photo: “This is a normal day at work for the Norwegian search and rescue services. Training situation hoisting over the Norwegian mountains. Often the preferred way of access when the helicopter can’t land. This was a nice day, but that’s not the case everyday. I was hoisted down with my kit on a nearby ridge before the rescue swimmer started his training procedure. I had to crawl in deep snow to get the right angle of light for this scene.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Homeless’ by @pranab_basak (India)

About this photo: “A homeless mother was standing on the ruins of her dwelling place and looking for a new destiny. During the remapping of tribal bordering, many buildings were demolished by local administration. Thus, a large number of tribal people became homeless.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Protestas 2017’ by @regulogomez (Venezuela)

About this photo: “During the 2017 protests in Venezuela, I worked as a photojournalist because that was what I could do: documenting the situation so that people would know about it. This photo was taken while a Bolivarian National Police headquarters was burning nearby.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Devotees return home’ by @sakter (Bangladesh)

About this photo: “I took this shot at Dhaka’s airport railway station during Biswa Ijtema, the second largest congregation of (the) Muslim community after Hajj. Every compartment of the train along with engine was overloaded!”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Corazón de fuego’ by @donaldobarros (Venezuela)

About this photo: “It was a dangerous scene. Venezuela was in a difficult and aggressive situation. A lot of people died in those protests. Journalists were targeted all the time, not easy. I did that job for my country. I am an artist, but I stopped my art to give my best as a journalist to Venezuela and the world.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ’11S’ by @oscar_penelo (Spain)

About this photo: “This protest march was set against the imprisonment of the pro-independence politicians. It shows a massive march demanding the reconstruction of a country with the Sagrada família in the background, one of the symbols of Barcelona and Catalonia, under construction.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘World champions day’ by @pascalpbz (France)

About this photo: “This picture was taken in Dieppe, moments after the football World Cup final of France vs Croatia. It was madness! The crowd invaded the streets all evening and all night. It was a big party that united all the French people. There was no difference to be seen between anyone, it was beautiful to see. Everyone wanted to be photographed, it was amazing.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Fire At Chawkbazar Dhaka’ by @tanveer.rohan (Bangladesh)

About this photo: “More than 70 people have died in this massive fire that occurred in buildings being used to store chemicals, and quickly expanded to nearby buildings in the densely packed historic district of the city. According to the Fire Service control room, 37 units from 31 stations were working all night to control the fire in the buildings. Many people hide in the small shops, but got stuck when fire spread rapidly. This fire incident was one of the most tragic incident in Bangladesh’s history.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Protesta vecinal en contra de los residuos mineros en terrenos cercanos a sus casas’ by @kopernic (Spain)

About this photo: “The people in the photo are environmentalists and families that live nearby the mining heap lands. I wanted to express the pain of these people through a staged photo. The population where they live is surrounded by mining sediments, resulting in high blood lead levels.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘The biggest eruption of Mt. Sinabung, December 2013’ by @kriswantoginting (Indonesia)

About this photo: “To this day, the status of Mount Sinabung is still the same: this volcano hasn’t stopped erupting since 2013. By sharing this photo, I would like to convey a message that we humans should have been taking care of nature before it got angry.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Kerbelâ1’ by @bekiryesiltas (Turkey)

About this photo: “During the month of Muharram, elaborate public processions are performed in commemoration of the Battle of Karbala. Thousands of people participate in these commemorations in different provinces and the suffering of the people is as fresh as the first day.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘The Graves of 20 Nameless Corpses’ by @barcerumkabu (Indonesia)

About this photo: “This deadly flash flooding that hit Sentani, Papua, killed more than 100 people, with more than 8,000 families who had to evacuate the zone.”

#Photojournalism2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Grève générale’ by @mikirabat.photo (France)

About this photo: “Paris, 5th December 2019: the general strike brings the french protesters to the streets. Here’s the activist group ‘Black Block’ advancing through the flames.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Agora’s #Photojournalism2020 winner and finalists

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: Agora’s #Urban2020 photo contest winner and finalists

15 Jan

Agora’s #Urban2020 photo contest winner and finalists

Agora, a free-to-use mobile app, hosts weekly competitions with cash prizes based on different themes. They just announced the winner of their #Urban2020 photo contest. 50 of the top entries were judged by Roc Isern, a Barcelona-based architectural photographer. Darren Reichel (@dlr on Agora), from Australia, was selected as the winner for his image of Brisbane’s Inner City Bypass freeway interchange. It was taken with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro at dusk in March 2019.

“I chose @drl’s photo in first place for its futuristic look with his incredible road junction in the foreground and the downtown in the background. The light, colors and contrast are just gorgeous,” said Isern about his selection. Read more about Reichel’s inspiration behind capturing this image, here. He’ll use the $ 1,000 prize to take his wife on a much-needed vacation from the stresses of raising their two-year-old daughter.

Agora is currently running photography contests based on the themes of Love, Celebration, Winter, Change the World, and Friends. It is available for iOS and Android. The title of the photo followed by the Agora username of the photographer and their home country. Captions are the photographers own words about their inspiration behind the image.

#Urban2020 Winner: ‘Myriad’ by @dlr (Australia)

About this photo: With his photo, @dlr shows how Australia’s third-largest city is adopting a very futuristic and forward-looking feel: “My wife, daughter and I were driving through this area late one evening, and we both commented on how complex this freeway interchange seemed. I thought to myself that this would look particularly amazing from the air, so I decided to go back the following weekend with my DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone, to capture the scene from above.

This freeway interchange runs over the top of a local waterway known as Breakfast Creek, which is renowned for its mosquito population. Needless to say, I came home covered head to toe in mosquito bites. My body was itchy for a week! I was super impressed with how well this image turned out though, so I think that the pain of the mosquito bites was more than worth it. I’m hoping that Brisbane residents see this photo and feel a sense of pride, and realise just how quickly this amazing city and its urban infrastructure is growing.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ’Untitled’ by @banudiker (Turkey)

About this photo: @banudiker snapped this picture while sailing on the Nile River, Egypt: “We were sailing away from Cairo’s noisy neighbourhoods. There is a lot of monotonous, colorless tall buildings along the Nile River in downtown. When I saw this building that is totally different from the others, I started to imagine the life of people living there.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Organised Chaos’ by @leemumford8 (UK)

About this photo: British photographer @leemumford8 snapped the incredible architecture of Hong Kong view from above: “Sometimes you don’t get the same sense of scale until you look at something from above. As the day turns too dark, I captured the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

As the street lights turned on, the roads lit up in this bright yellow-orange which I like to call the city’s veins. As the light was fading, a longer shutter was needed as I wanted to keep the ISO fairly low to help reduce noise. As this was an aerial shot, it was a fine balance before camera shake was an issue. The visibility on this particular was so clear, conditions I’ve been unable to replicate since.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ’Mind The Gap’ by @_kennyc_ (UK)

About this photo: @_kennyc_ entered the competition with an iconic shot from the London Tube: “Heading out later at night in London was something I loved to do – it’s a stark difference to the hustle and bustle of the day, giving photographers with completely different scenes to work with. The underground in particular, is eerily peaceful compared to the mayhem of rush hour.

At the time I had recently been inspired by a number of street/urban photographers who had captured some stunning scenes from various subways around the world – so one evening I picked up my camera and ventured below ground. This particular shot is an idea I’d had in my head ever since I watched the fantastic short film ‘Mind The Gap’ directed by Luke Flanagan.

This iconic message/recording is played out throughout the Underground network and heard by millions of Londoners every day. It’s a message instantly recognisable to anyone that has lived in this incredible city, and something I wanted to capture in a picture. I knew the message wasn’t just played out through speakers, but painted in bright yellow paint on the floor of many tube stations. I thought getting a close-up shot of this while capturing the speed of a moving train would make for a pretty cool shot – I wasn’t wrong! While the Tube is iconic to many people around the world, ‘MIND THE GAP’ is iconic to Londoners.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Trapped’ by @laboussole.seon (France)

About this photo: French expat @laboussole.seon took this photo of the legendary Yick Fat building in October 2017: “Hong Kong is the most exciting and most contrasted urban environment I know. With this photo, I wanted to transmit the feeling to be trapped in a city, in the middle of tall buildings with a high density of apartments, and the sky seems so far away. I took the photo at sunset so that the colours of the sky are an invitation to peace and warmth, to contrast with the main subject.

It is challenging to take a photo in this place, as it is a famous spot, mostly for Instagramers. I went a couple of hours before sunset secure a good spot. Shortly after this shooting session, the management of the building has added a sign forbidding photo taking as it became too disturbing for the people actually living in the building. unfortunately for them, it doesn’t seem to have stopped tourists.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ’Untitled’ by @anhtrungqng (Vietnam)

About this photo: Every day, thousands of motorcycles and cars crowd the streets of Ho Chi Minh City also known as Saigon, the largest city in Vietnam where @anhtrungqng snapped this shot during the evening rush hour.

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Eyeshape’ by @marcelvanbalken (Netherlands)

About this photo: Dutch photographer @marcelvanbalken said: “It was very bad weather, a lot of rain. So I had to take this picture with my camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other. The urban space in a play of light and shadow form shows an almost surrealistic decor. Pure black-and-white, in which the photography of architecture begins to take on abstract forms, reinforced by the apparently disproportionate addition of the man. If I win, I want to purchase a drone to be able to photograph urban spaces from a height.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Ship city’ by @azimronnie (Bangladesh)

About this photo: @azimronnie (no longer on the app) shares some facts about this picture taken in his hometown, Dhaka: “The 500 enormous vessels used to transport bricks, sand and other goods, are either being built or are docked for maintenance work in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Shipbuilders in Bangladesh began exporting their ships to other countries in 2009, and it has since become a growing trade in the area.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Saigon-Vietnam’ by @nguyenvuphuoc (Vietnam)

About this photo: @nguyenvuphuoc spotted these two female workers on Saigon’s under-construction new metro line: “When they saw me taking pictures, they asked me: Why? We are not beautiful, you should go and photograph beautiful girls instead.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Nightscape in Rome’ by @henrydo (USA)

About this photo: The majesty of Rome’s iconic symbol was perfectly captured by @henrydo: “Rome has been completely urbanized but they still kept many historic sites to preserve the history. I think it fits quite well with the hashtag. This shot was a composite of 2 separate images taken at different times in the same location. Many people thought a drone is capable of capturing the lit-up night sky but the technology isn’t that advance, yet. If I. win, I will donate part of my prize to a charity to fight plastic pollution in the ocean and save the marine wildlife.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Radioactive ??‘ by @notanothermica (Belgium)

About this photo: @notanothermica snapped this impressive shot while exploring the urban area of Charleroi, Belgium: “This is one of the most famous spots in Belgium for urban exploration. The door to enter this power plant is sometimes closed, which makes it not easy to get in. On that day, I was lucky because the door was open and there was some good light, which caused the cool glow on the metal of the powerplant. I wanted to place a person inside the power plant to had a reason for the viewer to relate to the photo.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘/–\’ by @wunderbilder (Germany)

About this photo: @wunderbilder captured this photo on a trip to Rome: “During our visit, we stayed in a flat in this building and I found the staircase geometrically very interesting. There was no elevator in the building.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Sinking in the fog’ by @borsch (Russia)

About this photo: Russian photographer @borsch entered the competition with a foggy aerial view of his hometown, Moscow.

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: @paulaaranoa (Argentina)

About this photo: Argentine photographer @paulaaranoa loved to explore the mysterious streets of Barcelona’s gothic neighbourhood: “The story behind the photo shows a character who is walking through a dark path, however the light is wrapping itself around him. On this day, the light was perfect. I watched how the people walking by were wrapped by the light, I spent at least an hour in the same place until the light changed… it was a unique spectacle and I consider myself privileged to have witnessed it.”

#Urban2020 Top 50 Finalist: ‘Can’t stop won’t stop’ by @theliamman (UK)

About this photo: @theliamman shot this photo nearby the telephone box outside St Paul’s Cathedral, London: “I wanted to transmit a sense of adventure. Cities come alive at night and I wanted to capture that bustling energy as the day turns to night. The top of this phone box was filthy, if you want to do the same photo I recommend wearing clothes that you don’t wear often.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Agora’s #Urban2020 photo contest winner and finalists

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: These are the winners and finalists of the ‘Hasselblad X You’ photo contest

20 Dec

Hasselblad X You grand prize winners and finalists

Over the past 3 months, Hasselblad X You, a competition put on by the camera company along with partners Peak Design and PolarPro, has been showcasing the best of what photographers have captured with Hasselblad’s X System cameras. 12 winners have been selected each week. The final grand prize winner is Chicago-based photographer Clarissa Bonet for her striking urban capture.

“For me, this image stands out because of the mixture of subjects and genre – fashion vs street – all while maintaining a clear focus on the model. So much to take in and yet there is still a strong focus when viewing this image. Very nicely done,” said 2018 Hasselblad Master Jorge de la Torriente. Creative content duo, and Hasselblad content partners, Daniel Rueda and Anna Devís remarked, “As architects, we really appreciated the effort of the photographer in building – no pun intended – a connection between fashion and architecture with her photography.”

Part of Grand Prize Winner Clarissa Bonet’s award includes a trip to Hasselblad’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Bonet will travel to Hasselblad’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she’ll tour the factory to see how their cameras are assembled. She’ll also get a tour of the Hasselblad Foundation and the Gothenburg Museum of Art. Prizes awarded will include a 907X Special Edition camera, travel bag, and accessories from the competition’s partners.

Hasselblad’s 970X Special Edition camera.

All captions for the following slideshow photos are the photographers own words. You can view all Hasselblad X You weekly winner features, in their entirety, here.

Grand Prize Winner: Clarissa Bonet – Chicago, Illinois, USA

About this photo: In Bonet’s own words: ‘This image is part of a fashion editorial I shot for Chicago Magazine that celebrates both the Bauhaus movement and architect Mies van der Rohe. The assignment was shot on location at multiple Mies buildings throughout the Chicagoland area. When thinking through the assignment, I knew the images must reference the Bauhaus style – minimalist, graphic, with bold lines and shapes.

After scouting the location at multiple times of the day, I knew exactly when a slim beam of light would open on the west side of the building, creating a bold, graphic band of light for our model to stand in. This specific image was made in Federal Plaza, which has three Mies buildings next to each other. To capture all three buildings in the same frame, I used the 45mm lens and stood in the middle of the street during a red light. An assistant watched for cars so I could focus on nailing the shot.’

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 45mm (XCD 3,5/45); F9,5; Shutter Speed: 1/350 sec.

Weekly Winner: Julius Hirtzberger – Vienna, Austria

About this photo: This image was captured at the first morning light on 2 January 2019 on the glacier of Margherita Peak (5109m above sea level), right before reaching the top of the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda. This scenery, with this very intense light and the breathtaking landscape, was reward enough for endless hours of tedious hiking through mud and rough terrain during the 8 days before and the 1am wake-up call on the peak-day (at -15 degrees Celsius).

These moments were so intense – I had tears in my eyes while taking this photograph, which made it a bit difficult to compose and nail the focus. As with all of my images in general, this image is by no means overdone in post. The intense morning light actually brightened the ice, giving these magenta and red tones!

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 45mm (XCD 3,5/45); F3,5; Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec.

Weekly Winner: Brian Love – Los Angeles, California, USA

About this photo: For this series we really wanted to have a minimal, mono theme where Vivica would really stand out but also be in harmony with the colors selected. For light, I wanted a daylight look with a little more pop, so I created more of a shaded daylight with strobes and v-flats. It was also important to have a team who shared in the same vision, so the color of lipstick that the makeup artist used and the clothing we chose all came together perfectly in the end. Just enough texture and color harmony to keep it simple yet stunning.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 90mm (XCD 3,2/90); F4,5; Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec.

Weekly Winner: Björn Ceder – Jönköping, Sweden

About this photo: Two years ago, I spent my summer vacation in Canada where I flew to the Great Bear Rainforest from Port Hardy with a sea airplane. I wanted to explore the temperate rainforest and found this amazing floating lodge where you made daily bear excursions with guides. One early morning rowing through the river delta in this unique Canadian environment, we found this bald eagle guarding his territory. It was a truly majestic nature experience that the X1D helped me capture.

All the people in the boat were using extreme telelenses to get really close to the animals but I wasn’t interested in photographing the animals this way. It’s in the context of the nature and the weather that makes the shot special. I ended up photographing bears, dolphins, eagles and other animals on this trip. When adjusting the focus of the X1D in this quiet surrounding, the minimal noise the camera makes is really rewarding, almost like cracking the code on a safe. You really experience the quality of the camera in the moment and it’s special when you end up with a shot like this.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 90mm (XCD 3,2/90); F3,2; Shutter Speed: 1/180 sec.

Weekly Winner: Jean Michel Voge – Millancay, France

About this photo: Crossing through Iceland before arriving to Greenland, I found myself in front of this very inspiring landscape. After taking two horizontal photos with the XCD 120 to capture the exact gradient of the sky, the snow and the rest of the vegetation, I had the idea to take 6 or 7 vertical photos (handheld) trying to capture the same horizon with each view. The raw files allowed me to combine these photos very easily.

To my pleasant surprise, the well-designed XCD optics gave results that kept the perspective uniform throughout the different shots. I also discovered throughout the past month on this trip that the XCD 120 is perfect for finding lines and framing in a wide landscape with the feeling of being neither too close nor too far – perfect!

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 120mm (XCD 3,5/120); F6,3

Weekly Winner: Jacob Degee – Warsaw, Poland

About this photo: The first challenge with this photo was being able to take my Hasselblad underwater. There is no branded housing on the market, so I custom-built one for my use. It took me 6 months and many underwater trials to have a X1D housing fully operational. The second challenge was to find an interesting wildlife subject. A few years ago, people discovered a congregation of whale sharks in the north of Isla Mujeres in Mexico. Once a year, some of the biggest fish in the world are drawn to this area for food.

The final challenge was to approach the animal and position myself properly. I was freediving and photographing whale sharks when I was lucky enough to spot a manta ray circling around. This manta was so happy with the huge amount of food that she was even swimming upside down continuing her feast. I needed to get closer to minimise the amount of water between the subject and the lens and to be angle my shot from the right side in order to catch the sun beams. I wanted to present the manta as if it was flying in the sky, framing the photo in such a way that the surface is at the bottom and the crystal-clear water seems like the sky.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 21mm (XCD 4/21); F4; Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec.

Weekly Winner: Saeed Nassouri – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

About this photo: I live in a city located on the outskirts of the desert and the sand dune formations have a special poetry about them that registers well with many people. The details in this series of photographs can be captured really well using medium format. The main reason I created these images was to show detailed impressions in the sand dunes. Little insect footprints in such a vast space fascinate me.

When I walk through the dunes, which is usually in hot and humid conditions where the temperature can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, I come across little details such as the footprints of small insects and desert wildlife. I positioned my camera directly above a small portion of the ripples and captured 3 different footprints going in different paths in one shot. Although I seldom see any of these creatures, their impressions lift my spirits, knowing that there is such diverse life in the empty desert and their footprints are renewed every day just like the prints I leave behind.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 45mm (XCD 45); F19; Shutter Speed: 1/180 sec.

Weekly Winner: Matthew Ng – Hong Kong

About this photo: I was walking around Hong Kong, and I decided to explore the Polytechnic University campus. It brought back memories of when I attended university back in Canada. The exact building that this staircase is in is the Jockey Club Innovation Tower. When I took this image, I had the idea in my mind that it would look great in black and white.

The colour temperature of the interior lighting was daylight so nothing special. When I post processed the image, I converted it into black and white but it didn’t feel right, so I converted it back into colour and still had this picture in a monochromatic style. I started moving the sliders until I found a cool blue tone that I liked. I do a lot of my editing without presets and just edit freely depending on how the photo speaks to me.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D II 50C, Focal Length: 30mm (XCD 3,5/30); F4; Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec.

Weekly Winner: Rajiv Bhambri – Melbourne Beach, Florida, USA

About this photo: The Quiraing is a massive landslip located in the Isle of Skye in Scotland. There are breathtaking views, with spectacular cliffs, hidden plateaus and pinnacles of rock. I started my hike early so I could watch the sunrise, and I was not disappointed. The sun shone through the clouds to light up this mountain and loch with sheep grazing at the foothills. I used the 135mm lens to better capture this gorgeous mountain scene.

True to the unpredictable Scottish weather, there was intermittent rain, and at some point, the sun disappeared completely. Because of the large dynamic range of the X1D camera, I did not need to spend time with ND graduated filters because of which I was able to take pictures quickly in between the periods of rain and also enjoy my walk.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 135mm (XCD 2,8/135); F29; Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec.

Weekly Winner: Martin Kube?ka – Pezinok, Slovakia

About this photo: This image was created while testing my new lighting gear, which allowed me to also put the sensor of the X1D II 50C to the test. My aim was to shoot a simple portrait where the emphasis was put more on colours and the face of the model. As I wanted to make this simple portrait unique, I took inspiration from the show “Stranger Things”, specifically the character Eleven’s usual dark expression.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D II 50C, Focal Length: 45mm (XCD 3,5/45); F4; Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec.

Weekly Winner: Frédéric Bastin – Brussels, Belgium

About this photo: Mostly it’s teamwork with the stylist, makeup artist and the hairdresser. They know that I like to shoot new faces in the fashion industry – the uncommon beauty. I’m at war with the obvious. As soon as I find a new interesting model, I submit a project and we work on it together. Last summer when the model, Heloise, entered the studio, she had this vivid, transparent skin full of freckles.

My makeup artist had the brilliant idea to reveal and accentuate her personality with black vinyl dots – something organic, like a second skin with a high contrast of black and white. I wanted to shoot this portrait with an extremely soft light, a mix of daylight and flash to capture this alternative beauty. That’s how I describe her identity.

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 90mm (XCD 3,2/90); F6,8; Shutter Speed: 1/180 sec.

Weekly Winner: Ellen McDermott – New York, New York, USA

About this photo: While on an editorial assignment shooting interiors for CTC&G (Connecticut Cottages & Gardens) Magazine, our Editor in Chief DJ Carey introduced us to our lifelong friends at Hound House, CT – Collin Robison and Trent De Berry. I mention this because DJ’s skill at pairing the location with the photographer is significant in how an assignment is realized. Our continued friendship and collaboration with Collin Robison Design led us to this photograph with Nailah, the Ocicat.

Incorporating animals into our interiors can add a warmth and humanness that is more approachable and visually interesting. I’ve always loved photographing animals. There is a moment of stillness when the subject becomes engaged with the camera. There is a connection. It is paramount to have the proper gear to capture these transient moments. The X1D’s excellence in handling low light situations with an elusive subject matter made this image possible with superior results!

Gear and specs: Hasselblad X1D-50C, Focal Length: 45mm (XCD 3,5/45); F8

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: These are the winners and finalists of the ‘Hasselblad X You’ photo contest

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: Agora presents The World’s Best Photos of #Water2019

30 Oct

The World’s Best Photos of #Water2019

Agora, a free-to-use social photo app consists of a global community with over 3.5 million users from 193 countries. Every week, its users participate in an international photography contest that revolves around one of 52 annual hashtags representing universal themes. The #Water2019 contest drew almost 17,000 entries and was narrowed down to 49 finalists. From there, users, along with guest judge Victor de Valles (@victordevalles), voted on the overall winning image.

‘Tides,’ captured by British photographer Lee Mumford (@leemumford8) was selected as the winner and received a $ 1,000 cash prize. ‘Truth be told, this was such a hard decision as the quality of the Top 50 was so much higher than expected, but there can only be one winner! I have chosen @leemumford8’s shot…because of its super original composition which I just love, its use of the water as its principal element and its perfect balance and mixture of colors that make it so aesthetic,’ said de Valles.

When using Agora, you start out with a few credits. Each photo uploaded counts for one credit. Users can gain a credit every 8 hours by watching a sponsored ad and receive 10 more for referring new users. Credits can be purchased through the app store as well. Every week, users can enter competitions for a chance to win cash prizes ranging from $ 1,000 to $ 25,000, photo gear, and other life-changing experiences.

Tides

WINNING PHOTO: Tides by Lee Mumford (United Kingdom)

About the photo: Lee Mumford has been living and working in Hong Kong for the past couple of years. His journey into photography started at a young age, where he learnt how to develop his own rolls of film and print his own images in the darkroom. His passion grew after he fulfilled his dream to become an airline pilot, enabling him to travel the world with his camera.

‘Tides’ was captured in Mona Vale, Sydney – one of the many rock pools on the eastern coast of Australia, with a Mavic 2 Pro drone.

Drinking Water

Finalist: ‘Drinking water’ by Hla Moe Naing (Myanmar)

Drywater

Finalist: ‘Drywater’ by Phyo Moe (Myanmar)

A Big Drop

Finalist: ‘A Big Drop’ by Theo Widharto (Indonesia)

Inception

Finalist: ‘Inception’ by Cuno de Bruin (Netherlands)

Rainbow childhood

Finalist: ‘Rainbow childhood’ by Sujit Saha (India)

Rainy Day

Finalist: Rainy Day by Hendy mp

Rainy

Finalist: Rainy by Andy Darmawan (Indonesia)

Sardine world

Finalist: Sardine world by Carles Alonso (Spain)

Stunning blue color from the Mediterranean sea in Greece

Finalist: Stunning blue color from the Mediterranean sea in Greece by Henry Do (USA)

Travelers

Finalist: Travelers by Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz (Spain)

Water is Life

Finalist: Water is life by Debasish Chakrabarty (India)

Boat Cruising Past Old Harry Rocks, Dorset

Finalist: Boat cruising past Old Harry Rocks, Dorset by Joe Shelly (UK)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Agora presents The World’s Best Photos of #Water2019

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: Winners of the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

24 Aug

2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Winners

The South Australian Museum has announced the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year and also shared the winning images from each of the ten categories offered in this year’s contest.

In total, 2,219 images were submitted and judged by Justin Gilligan, Glenn McKimmin and Tui De Roy. In the end, the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year award was handed out to Mat Beetson of Western Australia for the above image of a beached Fin Whale being circled by sharks on Cheynes Beach in Albany, Western Australia. The winning image was captured with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, marking the first time a drone-captured photograph has won the competition.

‘It was unreal, arriving at a peaceful coastal town with a pristine beach and then seeing this huge whale not even five metres from shore – we then noticed the thrashing close by and realised that a few sharks had also stopped by,’ Beetson told the Southern Australian Museum about the capture. ‘I launched the drone to see the aerial view and captured a sequence of photographs, this shot was one of the last ones I took and I was very lucky that the shark came back for a look.’

Beetson received a $ 10,000 cash prize as well as a Coral Expeditions cruise for winning.

The remainder of the images in this gallery are the ten winners in each of this year’s categories.

You can find out more information about the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition and the South Australian Museum by visiting their respective websites.

Above Image:

Overall Winner

Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus

The fin whale is sighted regularly in this region; seeing one beached, however, is rare. The whale sits less than 5m from shore and 100m from residential homes, giving whale researchers access to an unusual occurrence for this species. Bronze whalers and great whites feasted over the remains before removal.

Location: Cheynes Beach, Albany, Western Australia

Gear: DJI Phantom 4 Pro Drone, 24mm, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 100, 118m high, filmed with permission DPAW

Photographer: Mat Beetson, Western Australia

Photo credits: Images owned by their respective creators, used with the permission of the South Australian Museum.

Winner, Animal Portrait

Decorator crab, Achaeus spinosus

Typically, decorator crabs attach pieces of sponge and seaweed to themselves to camouflage and hide from predators (which makes them very poor photographic subjects). However, Achaeus spinosus attaches stinging hydroids to itself to ward off potential predators (making it a very attractive subject for photography).

Location: Lembeh Strait, North East Sulawesi, Indonesia

Gear: Canon EOS 7D Mk II, Canon EF 100mm, f/2.8 macro USM, 1/250, f/16, ISO 200, INON Z240 strobe with Retra Pro light shaping device, handheld

Photographer: Ross Gudgeon, Western Australia

Winner, Animal Behaviour

Humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae,
Dolphins, unidentified species

The heat run is the ultimate wildlife encounter – multiple whales competing for a female. The chase can last for hours or even days and males can display bubble netting, open mouth gulping, physical contact, loud acoustic sounds, and breaching. Even after 16 years documenting humpback behaviour in the region, it is still truly heart-thumping and adrenaline-pumping action.

Location: Tonga, South Pacific

Gear: Canon 1DX Mk II, Canon 8–15mm fisheye, 1/320, f/8, ISO 200

Photographer: Scott Portelli, New South Wales

Winner, Animal Habitat

Commensal amphipod living in solitary ascidian

I was searching for miniature pygmy seahorses on the reefs of West Papua when I happened across this tiny amphipod crustacean. Just 0.5–1cm long, this male is sitting at the mouth of the sea squirt to guard the females and young within. According to an amphipod expert, this is likely a new species.

Location: Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia

Gear: Nikon D800, Nikkor 105mm macro, 1/125, f/14, ISO 100, twin INON Z240 strobes, handheld, Subal underwater housing

Photographer: Richard Smith, United Kingdom

Winner, Botanical

Ghost fungus, Omphalotus nidiformis

The elusive ghost mushroom show starts after dark, when the green light of its bioluminescence glows across the pine forest on the Bellarine Peninsula. It seems like magic but the glowing works to attract insects that then help disperse the spores and spread the mushroom.

Location: Ocean Grove, Victoria

Gear: Canon 5D Mk IV, Samyang 14mm, 30, f/2.8, ISO 3200, Manfrotto tripod

Photographer: Marcia Riederer, Victoria

Winner, Landscape

When Barron Falls (Din Din) is in flood, the usually tranquil scene is transformed into a tumultuous cataract as huge volumes of water make their way to the coastal plain below. The sheer violence of this display, coupled with the deafening roar, makes it an unforgettable experience.

Location: Barron Falls, Kuranda, Queensland

Gear: Pentax X-5, 28.3mm, 1/320, f/5, ISO 100, handheld

Photographer: Neil Pritchard, Queensland

Winner, Monochrome

Honeycomb moray eel, Gymnothorax favagineus
Maze coral, Leptoria sp.

I came across this amazing juxtaposition of a honeycomb moray eel and a textured brain coral. It screamed monochrome to me, but one of the significant disadvantages of shooting underwater is that you cannot just change your lens to suit the subject. Still, I slowly moved as close to the eel as possible, increased the depth of field, and adjusted my strobes to light up the coral and the eel.

Location: Banda Sea

Gear: Nikon D850, Nikonos 13mm RS, 1/200, f/16, ISO 400, Seacam housing, Ikelite 161s strobe

Photographer: Tracey Jennings, United Kingdom/Malaysia

Winner, Junior

This night was the most amazing display of lightning that I have ever seen, with constant flashes of lightning lasting hours. For the composition, I decided to focus on a man standing at the edge of the water with an umbrella to add a sense of scale to the image.

Location: Fingal Bay, New South Wales

Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mk lll, Canon 17–40mm f4 L, 15, f/4, ISO 200, tripod

Photographer: Floyd Mallon, New South Wales. Age 17

Winner, Our Impact

The Menindee Lakes were deliberately drained in 2016–17 and New South Wales has experienced a lengthy drought. Animals and birds desperately seek food and water and there is very little left due to these human-made and natural events. Lake Cawndilla is now just a drying lakebed scattered with the remains of our native animals.

Location: Cawndilla Creek, Menindee, New South Wales

Gear: DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, 20mm, 1/640, f/2.8, ISO 200, ND4 filter

Photographer: Melissa Williams-Brown, South Australia

Threatened Species Winner

Winner, Threatened Species

Mertens’ water monitor, Varanus mertensi

STATUS: ENDANGERED

Mertens’ water monitors are highly inquisitive. This extremely bold specimen ostentatiously approached me to investigate the good-looking lizard in my dome port while I observed another nearby pair engaged in courtship – sadly for him he was staring at his own reflection, not the mate of his dreams.

Location: Adelaide River, Northern Territory

Gear: Olympus OMD EM-1 Mk II, Olympus 8mm f1.8, 1/125, f/11, ISO 64, two Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes, manual flash output, handheld, Nauticam underwater housing

Photographer: Etienne Littlefair, Northern Territory

Portfolio Prize

Portfolio Prize (best portfolio of size or more images)

Artist: Charles Davis, (NSW)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: Winners of the 2019 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: These are the winners of the 2018-2019 Nikon Photo Contest

07 Aug

2018-2019 Nikon Photo Contest Winners

Nikon has announced the winners of its 2018-2019 international Nikon Photo Contest. The contest, which started in 1969 ‘as an opportunity for photographers to share their unique visions and enrich photographic culture,’ celebrated its 50th anniversary with its highest number of annual submissions since its inception.

Nikon received 97,369 submissions from approximately 33,000 people across 170 countries and regions around the world. The entries were split up into three categories this year: Open, Next Generation and Short Film, the first two of which are split into single photo and photo story subcategories. Below is a brief description from Nikon for each of the categories:

  • Open: a single photo or photo story representing the theme of ‘Change’
  • Next Generation: a single photo or photo story expressing the idea of ‘Identity’ open to photographers aged 25 or younger
  • Short Film: a video submission that tells the story of ‘Hope.’

One additional submission has received the Participants’ Choice Prize, while another has received the Nikon Photo Contest 50th Anniversary Prize, a new prize implemented this year. These will be included in our gallery of the main category winners.

The winning images were selected by a panel of international judges from different disciplines in the world of art. Nikon says the ‘recipients of the gold, silver, and bronze awards from each category were selected based on a variety of aspects, including their suitability to the category’s theme, the strength of the message, and level of creativity.’ Below is a short video Nikon put together about the judges and their outlook on the images and the contest as a whole:

The Grand Prize winner, which is selected from the Gold Prize winners in each of the categories, will be announced at the awards ceremony on August 23, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

The accompanying gallery is a collection of the Gold Prize winners for each category. Additional Silver and Bronze prize winners can be found on the Nikon Photo Contest website.

Open Single Photo Winner

Alma and Alzheimer’s — Open Award Single Photo Gold Prize

Photographer: Jason Parnell-Brookes (United Kingdom)

Story: Donald?90, sits alone in the background consumed in his suffering with Alzheimer’s and unaware of his wife, Alma, 84 having dinner just feet away. He came back from World War II, changed from the kind caring man she had married, suffering with shellshock (PTSD). After a violent 60-year marriage with Alma, Donald was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. In the last few years of his life there was a sudden and rapid change of his demeanor rendering him placid, back to the man she had married.

Open Photo Story Winner

hope — Open Award Photo Story Gold Prize

Photographer: Thaib Chaidar (Indonesia)

Story: I took a photo of this series while on assignment about free cataract surgery for people who are not able in remote areas in West Papua, Manokwari Regency, and one of his patients was a mother named Sorina Ullo, who was lucky because after decades she could finally returned to see clearly, the cataract that had long suffered will heal soon

Next Generation Single Photo Winner

Ayimpoka — Next Generation Award Single Photo Gold Prize

Photographer: Sara De Antonio Feu (Spain)

Story: Ayimpoka lives with her family in a little town in Bolgatanga (Ghana). Albinism has been a cause of discrimination and persecution during years, and murders have been committed against albino children because of the popular association with magic and witchcraft. At Ayimpoka’s house, everyone gives her love and protection and a local NGO provides her weekly care. That day?she was recovering from malaria and she had a lot of sunburns because she was in the sun all day.

Next Generation Photo Story Winner

??(Fanghua – Moments in Our Youthful Days) — Next Generation Award Photo Story Gold Prize

Photographer: ? ?? [Jinghan Tu] (China)

Story: The camera I always have hanging around my neck is like another pair of eyes, and has essentially become a part of my body. Having the camera doesn’t affect how I engage with other people of the same generation. I am a part of the things that take place in each moment I capture. For me, pointing the lens at something is the same as taking screenshots of my own personal life. Every drop of rain, every smile, every quick motion, and every droplet when water is sprayed. The things I capture are nothing more than ordinary, yet they are all an important part of moments in the dazzling youthful lives of people, including myself. I continue to take photos to preserve the memories of those precious days which I have experienced.

Short Film Winner

Exulansis (link to video) — Short Film Award Gold Prize

Artist: Sara Crochet (United States of America)

Story: Exulansis n. the tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it. I made this film in one day to display a haunting memory and how I choose to see that as an experience I can share to bring light to women and men around me. Bringing us all together with understanding and love.

Participants’ Choice Prize Winner

The phoenix — NPC 50th Anniversary Prize

Artist: Helena Pelletier (Canada)

Story: As a young women, Halifax resident Holly Fox survived a terrible house fire?that took her young husband and left her with extensive scars after she ran into the flames to save their infant baby who made it out without injury thanks to the bravery of his mother. The child has grown now an adult man?and her scars a beautiful reminder of her courage and strength. Out of the ashes she will rise, stronger and more beautiful than before. Marked with evidence of such and wearing it with pride.

Nikon Photo Contest 50th Anniversary Prize Winner

????(Harvesting Season) — Participants’ Choice Prize

Artist: ? ?? Huaming Zhao (China)

Story: Fall is the season of harvesting. The tall green bamboos can be cut into strips for creating various crafts. They are dried, disinfected, then made into chopsticks to become a part of people’s everyday lives and bring joy to them.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: These are the winners of the 2018-2019 Nikon Photo Contest

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Slideshow: World Press Photo names ‘Crying Girl on the Border’ its 2019 Photo of the Year

13 Apr

2019 World Press Photo of the Year Winners

Editors note: There are images in the above gallery that are considered graphic and explicit in nature. Keep this in mind while looking through the gallery.

World Press Photo has announced the winners for its 2019 Photo Contest and named John Moore’s ‘Crying Girl on the Border,’ seen in the next slide, as Photo of the Year and First Prize in the Spot News Single category.

‘The winning image shows Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez crying as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas, USA, on 12 June 2018,’ says World Press Photo in its statement on the winning photo. ‘After this picture was published worldwide, US Customs and Border Protection confirmed that Yanela and her mother had not been among the thousands who had been separated by US officials. Nevertheless, public outcry over the controversial practice resulted in President Donald Trump reversing the policy on 20 June.’

John Moore has photographed in 65 countries on six continents and is a senior staff photographer and special correspondent for Getty Images. Whitney C. Johnson, vice president, Visuals and Immersive Experiences, at National Geographic and 2019 Photo Contest jury chair had the following to say about the winning photograph:

The details in the picture are interesting. From the gloves that the border patrol officer is wearing to the fact that the shoelaces have been removed.

The winning photographs fall under two headline awards: ‘World Press Photo of the Year’ and ‘World Press Photo Story of the Year,’ the latter of which showcases a series of images from a particular assignment or project from photojournalists around the world. There are eight additional categories, each of which has its own set of winners: Contemporary Issues, Environment, General News, Long Term Projects, Nature, Portraits, Sports and Spot News. Each of these categories have the sub-categories of single picture entries and story entries with the exception of Long Term Projects, which is a series.

We’ve rounded up the single picture first, second and third prize winners for each category in the gallery above. Along with the image will be a caption and accompanying backstory provided by the photographers and edited for clarity and brevity by World Press Photo.

2019 World Press Photo of the Year Winner

Crying Girl on the Border | © John Moore, Getty Images

Crying Girl on the Border | © John Moore, Getty Images

Caption: Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez cries as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas, USA, on 12 June.

Story: Immigrant families had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were then detained by US authorities. Sandra Sanchez said that she and her daughter had been traveling for a month through Central America and Mexico before reaching the US to seek asylum. The Trump Administration had announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy at the border under which immigrants caught entering the US could be criminally prosecuted. As a result, many apprehended parents were separated from their children, often sent to different detention facilities. After this picture was published worldwide, US Customs and Border Protection confirmed that Yanela and her mother had not been among the thousands who had been separated by US officials. Nevertheless, public outcry over the controversial practice resulted in President Donald Trump reversing the policy on 20 June.

2019 World Press Photo Contemporary Issues Single First Prize

The Cubanitas | © Diana Markosian, Magnum Photos

The Cubanitas | © Diana Markosian, Magnum Photos

Caption: Pura rides around her neighborhood in a pink 1950s convertible, as the community gathers to celebrate her fifteenth birthday, in Havana, Cuba.

Story: A girl’s quinceañera (fifteenth birthday) is a Latino coming-of-age tradition marking transition into womanhood. It is a gender-specific rite of passage, traditionally showcasing a girl’s purity and readiness for marriage. Families go to great expense, often celebrating with a lavish party. The girl dresses as a princess, living out a fantasy and perceived idea of femininity. In Cuba, the tradition has transformed into a performance involving photo and video shoots, often documented in a photobook. Pura’s quinceañera had a special poignancy, as some years earlier, having been diagnosed with a brain tumor, she was told she would not live beyond the age of 13.

2019 World Press Photo Contemporary Issues Single Second Prize

Male Rape | © Mary F. Calvert

Male Rape | © Mary F. Calvert

Caption: Former US marine Ethan Hanson bathes at home in Austin, Minnesota, USA, after a sexual trauma experienced during his military service left him unable to take showers.

Story: During a boot camp, Ethan and fellow recruits were ordered to walk naked through a communal shower while pressed together. Ethan reported the incident, but was harassed by the other men for doing so. Nightmares and panic attacks later forced him to resign. Recent Defense Department figures show sexual assault in the military to be on the increase. Servicemen are less likely than women to report sexual trauma, fearing retaliation or stigma.

2019 World Press Photo Contemporary Issues Single Third Prize

Afghan Refugees Waiting to Cross the Iranian Border | © Enayat Asadi

Afghan Refugees Waiting to Cross the Iranian Border | © Enayat Asadi

Caption: An Afghan refugee comforts his companion while waiting for transport across the eastern border of Iran, on 27 July.

Story: UNHCR reports that Iran has almost one million registered refugees, the vast majority from Afghanistan. In addition, more than 1.5 million undocumented Afghans are estimated to be present in the country. Many people fleeing violence, insecurity and poverty in Afghanistan find no alternative but to use illegal traffickers, along routes where they are exposed to robbery, kidnapping and death. Their aim is to pass through Iran and Turkey or Greece to seek a better life elsewhere, but trafficked refugees are highly vulnerable to forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, or work in the sex trade.

2019 World Press Photo Environment Single First Prize

Akashinga – the Brave Ones | © Brent Stirton, Getty Images

Akashinga – the Brave Ones | © Brent Stirton, Getty Images

Caption: Petronella Chigumbura (30), a member of an all-female anti-poaching unit called Akashinga, participates in stealth and concealment training in the Phundundu Wildlife Park, Zimbabwe.

Story: Akashinga (‘The Brave Ones’) is a ranger force established as an alternative conservation model. It aims to work with, rather than against local populations, for the long-term benefits of their communities and the environment. Akashinga comprises women from disadvantaged backgrounds, empowering them, offering jobs, and helping local people to benefit directly from the preservation of wildlife. Other strategies—such as using fees from trophy hunting to fund conservation—have been criticized for imposing solutions from the outside and excluding the needs of local people.

2019 World Press Photo Environment Single Second Prize

Evacuated | © Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times

Evacuated | © Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times

Caption: Evacuated horses stand tied to a pole, as smoke from a wildfire billows above them, on Zuma Beach, in Malibu, California, USA, on 10 November.

Story: The 2018 wildfire season in California was the deadliest and most destructive on record, burning an area of more than 676,000 hectares. While scientists pointed to the vegetation-drying effects of climate change as a cause, US President Donald Trump blamed forest management.

2019 World Press Photo Environment Single Third Prize

Living Among What’s Left Behind | © Mário Cruz

Living Among What’s Left Behind | © Mário Cruz

Caption: A child who collects recyclable material lies on a mattress surrounded by garbage floating on the Pasig River, in Manila, Philippines.

Story: The Pasig River was declared biologically dead in the 1990s, due to a combination of industrial pollution and waste being dumped by nearby communities living without adequate sanitation infrastructure. A 2017 report by Nature Communications cites the Pasig as one of 20 most polluted rivers in the world, with up to 63,700 tons of plastic deposited into the ocean each year. Considerable efforts are being made to clean up the Pasig, which were recognized by an international prize in 2018, but in some parts of the river the waste is still so dense that it is possible to walk on top of the garbage.

2019 World Press Photo General News Single First Prize

The Disappearance of Jamal Kashoggi | © Chris McGrath, Getty Images

The Disappearance of Jamal Kashoggi | © Chris McGrath, Getty Images

Caption: An unidentified man tries to hold back the press on 15 October, as Saudi investigators arrive at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, amid a growing international backlash to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Story: A critic of the Saudi regime, Khashoggi had been missing since entering the consulate on 2 October to obtain documents. After weeks of rumor and false information, Riyadh announced that Khashoggi had been killed accidentally during an altercation. Turkish authorities and the CIA claimed he had been murdered by Saudi intelligence operatives, working under high Saudi authority.

2019 World Press Photo General News Single Second Prize

Still Life Volcano | © Daniele Volpe

Still Life Volcano | © Daniele Volpe

Caption: The living-room of an abandoned home in San Miguel Los Lotes, Guatemala, lies covered in ash after the eruption of Volcán de Fuego on 3 June 2018.

Story: Fuego, around 40 km southwest of the capital Guatemala City, is one of Latin America’s most active volcanoes, and has been erupting periodically since 2002. It is monitored by volcanologists, but this eruption came without warning. People living around the volcano, many at Sunday lunch, were surprised by the suddenness of the event, as Fuego spewed red-hot lava, ash, poisonous gases and flaming debris onto villages below. The eruption was one of the deadliest in Guatemala for over a century. Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences reported the recovery of 318 bodies, over a third of them unidentified.

2019 World Press Photo General News Single Third Prize

Unilateral | © Brendan Smialowski, Agence France-Presse

Unilateral | © Brendan Smialowski, Agence France-Presse

Caption: US President Donald Trump leads France’s President Emmanuel Macron by the hand while walking to the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington DC, on 24 April 2018.

Story: President Macron’s three-day visit to the United States was the first official state visit of the Trump administration. Unexpectedly, the two presidents’ body language went beyond the norm for such visits, bordering on the intimate. The leaders also praised each other effusively. The 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran was one of the main topics under discussion. Macron aimed to persuade Trump to adhere to the deal, which limited Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions, but failed. On 8 May 2018, President Trump withdrew from the agreement, breaking with European allies. The relationship between the two leaders appears to have soured, with Trump later attacking Macron on Twitter.

2019 World Press Photo Nature Single First Prize

Survival Instinct | © Bence Máté

Survival Instinct | © Bence Máté

Caption: Frogs with their legs severed and surrounded by frogspawn struggle to the surface, after being thrown back into the water in Covasna, Eastern Carpathians, Romania, in April 2018.

Story: Frogs legs are frequently harvested for food in the spring, when males and females gather to mate and spawn. Legs are sometimes severed while the animal is still living. Each year, about US$ 40 million worth are sold annually, with countries across the world participating in the trade.

2019 World Press Photo Nature Single Second Prize

Flamingo Socks | © Jasper Doest

Flamingo Socks | © Jasper Doest

Caption: A Caribbean flamingo inspects the improvised socks created to help heal its severe foot lesions, at the Fundashon Dier en Onderwijs Cariben, Curaçao.

Story: The bird was brought by plane from neighboring island Bonaire, after spending a few weeks in a local rehabilitation facility. Such lesions are common among captive flamingos, as they have very sensitive feet and are used to walking on soft ground. After a few weeks of care the bird was transported back to Bonaire There are around 3,000 breeding pairs of Caribbean flamingos on Bonaire, and a further 200 to 300 birds on Curaçao.

2019 World Press Photo Nature Single Third Prize

Glass Butterfly | © Angel Fitor

Glass Butterfly | © Angel Fitor

Caption: A winged comb jelly, Leucothea multicornis, its wings widely opened, propels itself through waters off Alicante, Spain.

Story: Leucothea multicornis, like other comb jellies, is a voracious predator, capturing its prey using sticky cells rather than by stinging. Little is currently known about the biology of comb jellies. Because the creatures are so fragile and fold their wings in reaction to the slightest vibration, they are extremely difficult to study and to photograph.

2019 World Press Photo Portrait Single First Prize

Dakar Fashion | © Finbarr O’Reilly

Dakar Fashion | © Finbarr O’Reilly

Caption: Diarra Ndiaye, Ndeye Fatou Mbaye and Mariz Sakho model outfits by designer Adama Paris, in the Medina neighborhood of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, as curious residents look on.

Story: Dakar is a growing hub of Franco-African fashion, and is home to Fashion Africa TV, the first station entirely dedicated to fashion on the continent. The annual Dakar Fashion Week includes an extravagant street show that is open to all and attended by thousands from all corners of the capital. Adama Paris (who has a namesake brand) is a driving force behind the fashion week, and much else on the design scene.

2019 World Press Photo Portrait Single Second Prize

Black Birds | © Heba Khamis

Black Birds | © Heba Khamis

Caption: Jochen (71) and Mohamed (21; not his real name) sit in the Tiergarten, Berlin. Jochen fell in love after meeting Mohamed, then a sex worker in the park. They have been dating for 19 months.

Story: Prostitution between consenting adults is legal in Germany, and German aid charities have reported a marked increase in the number of young migrants turning to sex work. While they wait for their documents, refugees are not allowed to work legally or attend school. The German government prioritizes assistance to refugees from countries with an ongoing war; those seeking asylum from countries without war are placed in a second category, where papers take longer to complete. This lack of employment opportunity creates a severe lack of choice for many, with some young men becoming sex workers, sometimes to fund a heroin addiction. The Tiergarten, a large park in central Berlin, is a popular meeting spot for male sex workers and older clients. Mohamed now works in a gay bar, and is quitting heroin.

2019 World Press Photo Portrait Single Third Prize

When I Was Ill | © Alyona Kochetkova

When I Was Ill | © Alyona Kochetkova

Caption: Alyona Kochetkova sits at home, unable to face borscht (beet soup), her favorite food, during treatment for cancer.

Story: Alyona shot this self-portrait following surgery and chemotherapy, when, although she knew the vital importance of food, she struggled to eat. Taking photos was not only a way of sharing a difficult and personal story in the hope that it might support others with a cancer diagnosis, it was also a means of accepting her ordeal by doing what she loved.

2019 World Press Photo Sports Single First Prize

Boxing in Katanga | © John T. Pedersen

Boxing in Katanga | © John T. Pedersen

Caption: Boxer Morin Ajambo (30) trains in Katanga, a large slum settlement in Kampala, Uganda, on 24 March.

Story: More than 20,000 people live in Katanga, crowded together and often in extreme poverty. The boxing club receives no outside funding. From these disadvantaged beginnings, Ajambo, a mother of seven, went on to box in the Ugandan women’s team. Men’s boxing has a long history in Uganda, bur women boxers are often frustrated by the few opportunities to compete at an international level.

2019 World Press Photo Sports Single Second Prize

Sunlight Serve | © David Gray, Reuters

Sunlight Serve | © David Gray, Reuters

Caption: Naomi Osaka serves during her match against Simona Halep from Romania during the Australian Open tennis tournament, at Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, Australia, on 22 January.

Story: Osaka, who was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father is now based in Florida, USA, went on to win the tournament. In September, she won the US Open women’s singles, defeating Serena Williams. Over the course of 2018, Osaka rose from number 72 in world rankings to number one.

2019 World Press Photo Sports Single Third Prize

Shields Strikes Back | © Terrell Groggins

Shields Strikes Back | © Terrell Groggins

Caption: Olympic champion Claressa Shields (right) meets Hanna Gabriels in a boxing match at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on 22 June.

Story: Shields suffered a second-round knock down by Gabriels—the first in her career—but went on to win the match by unanimous decision. Shields is the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing, and the first (male or female) to win a gold back-to-back in successive Olympic Games. She has had only one loss in her career, against British World Champion Savannah Marshal, in 2012.

2019 World Press Photo Spot News Single First Prize

Crying Girl on the Border | © John Moore, Getty Images

Crying Girl on the Border | © John Moore, Getty Images

Caption: Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez cries as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas, USA, on 12 June.

Story: Immigrant families had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were then detained by US authorities. Sandra Sanchez said that she and her daughter had been traveling for a month through Central America and Mexico before reaching the US to seek asylum. The Trump Administration had announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy at the border under which immigrants caught entering the US could be criminally prosecuted. As a result, many apprehended parents were separated from their children, often sent to different detention facilities. After this picture was published worldwide, US Customs and Border Protection confirmed that Yanela and her mother had not been among the thousands who had been separated by US officials. Nevertheless, public outcry over the controversial practice resulted in President Donald Trump reversing the policy on 20 June.

2019 World Press Photo Spot News Single Second Prize

Warning: the above image is graphic in nature. Click here to see the original photo. The Death of Michael Nadayo | © Ezra Acayan

Warning: the above image is graphic in nature. Click here to see the original photo. The Death of Michael Nadayo | © Ezra Acayan

The Death of Michael Nadayo | © Ezra Acayan

Caption: The body of Michael Nadayao lies in the street after he was shot dead by unidentified men in front of mourners at a wake, in Quezon City, Philippines, on 31 August 2018.

Story: President Rodrigo Duterte began a concerted anti-drug offensive soon after taking office in June 2016, repeatedly ordering increased attacks against suspects. Amnesty International reports that this led to human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings by both civilians and police. A spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said the campaign had led to 5,050 deaths by December 2018, with Human Rights Watch citing over 12,000. In June, 38 UN member states called on President Duterte to end the killings and probe the causes of the drug war.

2019 World Press Photo Spot News Single Third Prize

Climbing the Border Fence | © Pedro Pardo, Agence France-Presse

Climbing the Border Fence | © Pedro Pardo, Agence France-Presse

Caption: Central American migrants climb the border fence between Mexico and the United States, near El Chaparral border crossing, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, on 25 November 2018.

Story: Refugees who were part of a caravan that originated in Honduras in October 2018, began arriving at the border in November 2018 to find a backlog of some 3,000 people waiting to be processed into the United States, and a potential delay of months. This led to rising tensions, and to people breaking away from the caravan to attempt their own entry.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Slideshow: World Press Photo names ‘Crying Girl on the Border’ its 2019 Photo of the Year

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »