The World Press Photo Foundation has announced the four global winners of World Press Photo 2024, the most prestigious photojournalism and documentary photography competition in the world, whose exhibition can be visited in Barcelona from November 8 to December 15.
These are the most outstanding images in the four categories of the contest: Single Photographs, Stories, Long-Term Projects and Open Format.
The Photo of the Year
The World Press Photo of the Year goes to A Palestinian woman embraces the body of her niece, by the Palestinian photographer Mohammed Salem for Reuters. The photograph shows Inas Abu Maamar (36 years old) holding the lifeless body of his niece Saly (5 years old), who was murdered, along with her mother and sister, when an Israeli missile hit her home in Khan Younis, Gaza.
© Mohammed Salem for Reuters
Salem describes this photograph, taken a few days after his own wife gave birth, as a “powerful and sad moment, which sums up the broader meaning of what was happening in the Gaza Strip.”
The jury highlighted the care and respect used when composing the image, which offers, at the same time, a metaphorical and literal look at an unimaginable loss. An image that symbolizes the ravages of the conflict and declares the futility of all wars. In 2010, more than a decade ago, Mohammed Salem already received a World Press Photo for another image about the same conflict, which the jury highlights as the continuous fight for the recognition of such a pressing issue.
The best Graphic Report of World Press Photo 2024
The World Press Photo for Photo Report of the Year goes to South African photographer Lee-Ann Olwage for the story Valim-babena, for GEO. It portrays Paul Rakotozandriny, ‘Dada Paul’ (91 years old), who has been living with dementia for 11 years and is cared for by his daughter Fara Rafaraniriana (41 years old), the only one of his children who realized, a couple of years ago, that his father was sick and that he had not “gone crazy” or was a victim of excessive alcohol consumption as others thought.
As life expectancy increases, dementia is becoming a global problem. In Madagascar, the WHO estimates that about 40,000 people live with Alzheimer’s. But a lack of public awareness often stigmatizes those suffering from mental illness, with many confusing the symptoms with signs of witchcraft, demonic possession or “madness.” On the contrary, the story of Fara and Dada Paul illustrates the Malagasy principle of valim-babena: the duty of adult children to help their parents, as an expression of love and moral debt for the care that the parents took in the raising their children.
The jury commented that “the graphic report addresses a universal health problem through the perspective of family and cures. The selection of images is composed with warmth and tenderness, reminding viewers of the love and closeness necessary in times of war and hostility around the world.” The report is part of a long-term project by the author, which has already won a regional World Press Photo in Individual Photographs in 2023. On that occasion, Olwage was a guest at our World Press Photo exhibition in Barcelona, where she gave the talk “The Big Forget” (photography and mental health).
World Press Photo Best Long Term Project 2024
The World Press Photo Award for Long-Term Project goes to Venezuelan photographer Alejandro Cegarra with The Two Walls for The New York Times / Bloomberg. Based on his own experience as a migrant from his native Venezuela to Mexico in 2017, the photographer began this project in 2018 that portrays the reality of migrants trying to cross the border of Mexico.
Since 2019, Mexico’s immigration policies have undergone a significant change, transforming from a nation historically open to migrants and asylum seekers at its southern border to a country that enforces strict immigration policies.
Additionally, the evolution of foreign and immigration policy by successive US administrations, the imposition of COVID-19 protocols, and political and economic instability in Central and South America have contributed to the current crisis, leaving thousands of people stranded in Mexican border cities. Migrants and asylum seekers wait indefinitely in makeshift camps, often in areas under the control of corrupt authorities and drug cartels, exposed to violence and poor living conditions.
The jury valued this project as an “example of dynamic and first-class storytelling. The images are both ruthless and respectful, conveying the intimate emotions present on various migrant journeys. It offers a sensitive and human-centered perspective that puts the will and resilience of migrants in the spotlight.”
World Press Photo Best Open Format 2024
The World Press Photo Open Format Award goes to Ukrainian photographer Julia Kochetova for War is Personal, a web project that combines documentary photojournalism, poetry, illustration and music. In the style of a personal diary, it shows the world what it is like to live with war as an everyday reality.
After almost ten years of fighting and tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties, the war continues in Ukraine. While the media reports through statistics and maps, and international attention turns its attention elsewhere, this kyiv-based Ukrainian photojournalist and documentary filmmaker makes a multimedia presentation of her subjective vision of the war, allowing her to inject greater emotion and symbolism that photographs alone would convey.
According to the jury, his emotional images stood out among many other candidates about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. They especially valued the internal perspective it offers of the experience and its form of a poetic diary, with strong visual symbolism, use of color sequences and an attractive use of audio and illustration – in collaboration with an illustrator and a DJ, also from Ukraine -, which give a cinematographic quality to the work.
All the winners at the World Press Photo 2024 exhibition in Barcelona
A global jury, made up of the presidents of each of the six regional juries of World Press Photo 2024, has been in charge of selecting the four main awards. These global winners have been chosen from the 24 regional winners, previously announced.
Both the global and regional winners will be part of the World Press Photo 2024 exhibition in Barcelona, which can be visited from November 8 to December 15.
The Barcelona exhibition will be organized by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, for the twentieth consecutive year, and will be held again at the CCCB – Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, with the main collaboration of the Banco Sabadell Foundation. As usual, the exhibition in Barcelona will feature international guests, complementary activities and guided tours for the general public, school groups and also companies. Tickets will be available next October.
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