Palestinian woman’s photograph with her dead niece wins World Press Photo award

A poignant image of a grieving Palestinian woman holding her great-niece killed in an Israeli strike in the war-torn Gaza Strip won the top World Press Photo prize on Thursday.

In a photo taken by Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem, Inas Abu Maamar holds the body of his five-year-old niece Sali, who was killed along with her mother and sister by a missile that hit their home in Khan Younes in October.

“It was a powerful moment”

The photographer was at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on October 17 when he saw Inas Abu Maamar, 36, in tears holding the body of a little girl wrapped in white cloth in his arms.

The photo was taken 10 days after the start of the conflict, sparked by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel.

“It was a powerful and sad moment, and I felt that the image broadly reflected what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” said the photographer, quoted in a press release from the prestigious World Press Photo competition. .

“It’s a really moving image,” said jury chair Fiona Shields. “Once you see it, it kind of sticks in your mind. »

The image “feels like a sort of literal and metaphorical message about the horror and futility of conflict” and makes an “incredibly powerful argument for peace,” she added.

Story of the Year Award for South African Photographer

South African Lee-Ann Allwage, who was featured in GEO magazine, won Story of the Year for her intimate portrait of a Malagasy family living with an elderly parent with dementia.

“This story examines a universal health care problem through the lens of family and caregiving,” the judges said.

“The series of images are composed with warmth and tenderness, reminding viewers of the love and intimacy needed in times of war and aggression around the world,” they added.

Award for “long-term” project awarded to Venezuelan

Venezuelan photographer Alejandro Segarra won a long-term project award for his monochrome images of migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross Mexico’s southern border for the New York Times/Bloomberg.

With his experience as a migrant, the Venezuelan “offered a sensitive, people-centered perspective” by emphasizing the resilience of migrants, the jury said.

Ukrainian won the “open format” prize

In the open format category, Ukrainian Yulia Kochetova won with her website, which “combines photojournalism with a personal documentary style of a diary to show the world what it means to live with war as an everyday reality.”

The winning photographs for 2024 were selected from 61,062 entries submitted by 3,851 photographers from 130 countries. The photographs are on display at the Neue Kerk church in Amsterdam until July 14.