World Press Photo 2012 : exhibition of prize-winning images in Paris, from 1 to 21 June

Written by Michèle Folian. Translation Florence Le Provost

From 1 to 21 June, the prestigious International World Press Photo Contest will present the prize-winning images classified into nine themed categories and captured over the past year by 57 photojournalists. Focus upon moving images.

This year again, professional photojournalists, press photgraphers and documentary photographers from around the world participated in the 55th World Press Photo Contest.

Spanish Samuel Aranda was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year 2011.
The photo shows a woman holding her wounded son in her arms, inside a mosque used as a temporary field hospital by demonstrators against the regime of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, during protests in Sanaa, Yemen, on 15 October. Samuel Aranda was on assignement for The New York Times.

World Press Photo of the Year 2011. Fatima al-Qaws consoling her son Zayed, 18, who was injured during a protest in Sanaa, Yemen. © Samuel Aranda for The New York Times.

“The photo is the result of a very human moment, but it also reminds us of something important, that women played a crucial part in this revolution. It is easy to portray the aggressiveness of situations like these. This image shows the tenderness that can exist within all the aggression. The violence is still there, but it shows another aspect of the situation”, said Manoocher Deghati, member of the jury, regional photo manager AP for the Middle East.

Nine Themed Categories

1st prize singles – Spot news Rebels battle for Ras Lanuf, an oil-refining town on the Libyan coast, on 11 March. © Yari Kozyrev / NOOR Images for Time

The jury gave prizes in nine themed categories to 57 photographers from 25 countries : Afghanistan, South Africa, Germany, Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, the USA, France, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Russia and Sweden.

1st prize singles – Contemporary Issues Maria, a drug-addicted sex-worker, rests between two clients in the room she rents in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. © Brent Stirton / reportage by Getty Images for Kyiy Post, The Sunday Times.

This year, 5,247 photographers from 124 countries had submitted 101,254 pictures by the mid-January deadline.

1st prize stories – Contemporary Issues Tahari (in pink), who was married at the age of 6, and her former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, stand with their husbands outside their home, in Hajjah, Yemen. © Stéphanie Sinclair / VII Photo Agency for National Geographic Magazine

View all winners in the online gallery

1st prize singles – Portraits Actress Mellica Mehraban, who was born in Iran but grew up in Denmark, has played in the Iranian spy thriller Fox Hunting. © Laerke Posselt for Politiken

Par Michèle Folian