The Photos That Stuck With Me
Eight of the jury chair’s favorite nominated photos from this year’s World Press Photo Contest
If you watch the video above, it will seem obvious that I (and the jury) thought that the six nominees for World Press Photo of the Year had to come from the General News and Spot News categories. Of course, we tried to bring photos in from other categories, but it’s difficult to do. At the end of the day, the World Press Photo Contest is a contest for photojournalism and the Photo of the Year should depict an event of the year, or the news of the year. Sometimes things that we saw in the People or Nature category could have been considered an event or news the year before—or even perhaps next year—but there was not that sense of urgency you get from the News categories.
That’s not to say that the other categories didn’t cover some very important topics that say something about our society and what’s happening in the world today, though. Take, for example, these other eight great nominees, my personal selection from the more than 300 nominated pictures:
“More Than a Woman” by Giulio Di Sturco
This Contemporary Issues photo by Giulio Di Sturco has a whole narrative in it. Of course, we immediately see the main figure on the bed holding the mirror up to their genitalia, but if you look closer you’ll notice the subtle pops of pink in the mirror and the iPhone case. Just from looking at the picture, you can probably guess that there is something here related to gender reassignment—an important issue all over the world, but especially in Thailand, where this photo was taken. For me and the jury, the narrative punctuated by the little pink details combined with the topic to make something very interesting that we thought was worth rewarding.
“Hunger Solutions” by Luca Locatelli
What I immediately liked about this photo in the Environment category was the color combination and the graphic nature of it. After awhile, though, you look at the vanishing point of the photo and you realize the massive scale of this greenhouse and you get a sense of how industrialized the food industry has become. With the human in the center and the numbers on the columns for scale, I think the photographer has captured a striking image that perfectly encapsulates the world of high-tech agriculture today.
New to this year’s contest, the Environment category was an important topic that was interesting to judge. Generally, environmental issues are not visually obvious. So in addition to research, a photographer will really have to think about how to visualize the concept. How do you bear witness to change? How do you show the way environment impacts economy and demography? I think this is an extremely promising category that will hopefully have a large reach.
“Watch Houses Burn” by Md Masfiqur Akhtar Sohan
I find this establishing shot in the General News category to be somehow both calm and dramatic at the same time. The foreground of the camps and the people standing calmly on the hill is in complete juxtaposition with the smoke and fire we see across the river. When you realize that the people in the foreground are Rohingya refugees and what they are looking at is their houses being burned and their village being destroyed, you then really get a sense of the whole drama of the situation. All that stands between where they come from and where they are today is a river. You can just feel how heavy this moment was and, for me, the story is completely contextualized in this photo.
“Omo Change” by Fausto Podavini
To me, in a very graceful way, this photo sums up the contradiction between tradition and development, which is what this Long-Term Projects story is all about. You see the bras on these girls and you immediately wonder why they are wearing them. It just looks wrong or maybe the bras just look out of place. But what we are looking at is the evolution of development. Maybe it starts with a bra that they pick to show off as a fashion accessory. But then, little-by-little, the culture starts to completely change. It’s just a great story that could have been considered in a number of contest categories, so I’m glad we could include it in the Long-Term Projects.
Unlike the other categories, you can’t move singles or stories out of the Long-Term Projects category to another category, so it was heart-breaking to have to eliminate so many good stories. The Long-Term Projects category is also where you can really see the importance of the edit. When you have 20–30 photos in order to tell a story, you have to be consistent. We saw some beautiful stories that were unfortunately ruined by a bad edit, so it’s important to remember that a good storyteller must also be a good editor.
“Sacred No More” by Jasper Doest
We happened upon this striking scene in the Nature category and I was immediately drawn to the awkwardness. There have been and still are many photos like this, but what’s really interesting here is that this animal is not presented like a pet. The monkey is the star of this photo, dressed up and standing almost as if he were an actor on a stage. The scale here is also very different from other photos, as the monkey is the obvious focus. Neither of the humans on either side of the image are complete—one has a missing head and the other has a missing body—as if to say they are not as important.
I think it’s interesting to have this photo in the Nature category because it’s the ultimate anti-Nature photo. Humans have changed everything for this animal, from his environment to his behavior. I think it says a lot about us as a species.
“Finding Freedom in the Water” by Anna Boyiazis
When I first saw this People photo, I was drawn to the colors and the composition, but once I got past those things, I had so many questions. What are these girls doing with the jugs? Why are they in the water fully clothed? When you come to understand that they’re learning to swim and the jugs are helping them to float, you immediately realize that the clothes they are wearing are burkinis. Where I’m from, the burkini is seen as something that is repressive, but in this photo it is a symbol of freedom. The burkini has allowed these women in Zanzibar to enter the water and learn how to swim. This photo and the positive story that goes with it really showed me how a person’s perspective can change everything.
“Car Attack” by Ryan M. Kelly
In terms of aesthetics, this is not a great photo. But when you consider the composition based on what’s happening and where the photographer is, it is a great Spot News single photograph. The more you look at this photograph, the more amazing and horrifying things you will see. There’s the obvious things, like the multiple pairs of shoes on the ground, the man who is upside-down in the air, or the man who is horizontal with the ground. But then there are the not-so-obvious details, like the banners saying ‘Love’ and ‘Solidarity’. This is such a strong Spot News photograph and we thought it needed to be rewarded.
“Royal Shrovetide Football” by Oliver Scarff
When we first saw this black-and-white Sports photo, we had to figure out what was going on in it. What kind of sport is that? It may take you a while to get to the middle of the photo, but once you do you’ll see that there is a ball in there! It’s quite funny, I think, the sheer number of men in this photo. The photographer took some distance by making the scene black-and-white, but I think it works well here because the story is about the ancestor of football, a game played in the 12th century where they used a severed human head instead of a ball. I know that Thomas Borberg, the Sports jury chair, has a great sense of humor and there is definitely humor in this photo, but I also appreciate this new approach to sports.
In the process of judging the World Press Photo Contest, you look at so many pictures. But some just stay with you. Each time you see them, you see or learn something new—another layer you hadn’t seen before. These kinds of images carry a story that goes beyond the graphic, aesthetic or mere action in them. That’s what appealed to me and that’s what I hope stays with everyone who sees them.
You can see all the nominees in the 2018 World Press Photo Contests at www.worldpressphoto.org. There are 12 nominated digital storytelling productions, and a total of 312 nominated photographs (singles and stories) in the photo contest.
The winner of the World Press Photo of the Year, and the winners in all categories of the 2018 Digital Storytelling Contest and 2018 Photo Contest, will be announced at the Awards Show in Amsterdam on 12 April 2018.
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