The 2022 World Press Photo Winners have been announced, and the images presented here reflect a whole lot of what happens in the world. As an American, the images are fascinating to stare at. It’s impossible for us to see all these stories from the various media agencies. But it’s also often not fed to us. The images are incredible, and cement the fact that photography isn’t going to be replaced by video. Instead, photographers just need to strive to be that much better. As these photos display, it means we need to really get out there and document the world as it happens.
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This year’s 2022 World Press Photo Winners have images that hit me in many different ways. Often I think back to college, and how I literally wanted to be one of these folks. But after doing it for a little while and careful deliberation, I didn’t want to anymore. What these photographers do is dangerous, difficult, physically taxing, and potentially mentally scarring. Having to separate your emotions while documenting what’s happening in front of you is a tough thing to do. But there are also fascinating projects, such as the one you’ll see that was partially computer-generated to prove a point.
We, as passionate photographers, should keep all this in mind as we look through these photos. What’s more, we should celebrate the work these photographers do. Please take a look at the images below. You’ll get one of the best mobile and tablet experiences if you download our app. Otherwise, check this out on a desktop.
Table of Contents
The Cameras Used
The following contains data that we’ve mined using Capture One 22 to figure out the cameras used. We’re focusing on those more than the lenses. But of course, we know that lenses are important. And ultimately, it’s the photographer who fires the shutter.
Nikon and Canon DSLRs are still popular for working photojournalists who’ve used the same gear that’s consistently worked for them for years.
If we don’t mention a camera associated with a photographer, it’s because we couldn’t find it in the EXIF data.
Film continues to create great photos.
Drones and phones remain to be a useful tool for photographers.
The Nikon z6 and z6 II were designed with photojournalists in mind, yet photojournalists defer to the higher megapixel bodies it seems from Nikon. The exception is their higher-end DSLRs.
Don’t discredit older cameras! The Leica M8, Canon 5D Mk II, and the original Sony a7 made it on this list!
This list has three APS-C cameras.
One medium format digital camera was used.
The majority of cameras here are full-frame DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.
We’re a bit stunned to not see the Sony a1 anywhere on this list.
The winning image was shot with the Canon 5D Mk IV, which has the same sensor as the Canon EOS R.
Previous awards have had a lot more Fujifilm cameras present.
A mix of prime lenses and zooms were used.
WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR (Amber Bracken Using a Canon 5D Mk IV)
A red dress along the highway signifies the children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Red dresses are also used to signify the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Amber Bracken for The New York Times
Kamloops Residential School by Amber Bracken, Canada, for The New York Times
Red dresses hung on crosses along a roadside commemorate children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, an institution created to assimilate Indigenous children, following the detection of as many as 215 unmarked graves, Kamloops, British Columbia, 19 June 2021.
Global jury chair Rena Effendi about this image: “It is a kind of image that sears itself into your memory, it inspires a kind of sensory reaction. I could almost hear the quietness in this photograph, a quiet moment of global reckoning for the history of colonization, not only in Canada but around the world.”
WORLD PRESS PHOTO STORY OF THE YEAR (Matthew Abbott using a Nikon D6)
For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people – the oldest continuous culture on earth – have been strategically burning the country to manage the landscape and to prevent out of control fires. At the end of the wet season, there’s a period of time where this prescribed burning takes place. I visited West Arnhem Land in April/May 2021 and witnessed prescribed aerial and ground burning.
For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people – the oldest continuous culture on earth – have been strategically burning the country to manage the landscape and to prevent out of control fires. At the end of the wet season, there’s a period of time where this prescribed burning takes place. I visited West Arnhem Land in April/May 2021 and witnessed prescribed aerial and ground burning.
Fire fighting on country with Warddeken. Third Trip for Nat Geo. “This is my country. This is where I recognise myself. I have a responsibility to manage it now and into the future” Andrew Marangurra – Traditional Owner For thousands of generations, Nawarddeken clan groups lived on their customary estates in the stone country. They were part of a living landscape, integral to the health of the stone country, Nawarddeken walked, camped throughout their lands, each dry season undertaking landscape-scale traditional burning. With the arrival of Balanda (white people), Nawarddeken began to leave the stone country attracted by Christian missions and government trading posts, opportunities to work in the mining and buffalo industries, and the appeal of larger settlements. A Nawarddeken diaspora resulted and, by the late 1960s, the Stone Country was largely depopulated. Nawarddeken elders considered the country orphaned. During this time, our elders saw and felt the devastation of large wildfires and an increasing number of feral animals impacting biodiversity and cultural sites. Their concern was matched only by their desire and motivation to return to country, to once again look after the Stone country, and maintain and pass on their knowledge to future generations. In the 1970s a return to country movement began in Australia, which resulted in Nawarddeken moving back to outstation communities, the traditional homes in the stone country. In 2002 after decades spent bringing other Nawarddeken back to country, traditional owner Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek returned to his childhood home at Kabulwarnamyo to establish the first of three Warddeken ranger bases, providing employment in the region and allowing landowners to make a living on country. Establishing their own schools, housing and infrastructure. Warddeken Rangers were the first in the world to earn carbon credits from the traditional burning of country.
Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott, Australia, for National Geographic/Panos Pictures
Indigenous Australians strategically burn land in a practice known as cool burning, in which fires move slowly, burn only the undergrowth, and remove the build-up of fuel that feeds bigger blazes. The Nawarddeken people of West Arnhem Land, Australia, have been practicing controlled cool burns for tens of thousands of years and see fire as a tool to manage their 1.39 million hectare homeland. Warddeken rangers combine traditional knowledge with contemporary technologies to prevent wildfires, thereby decreasing climate-heating CO2.
Global jury chair Rena Effendi about this story: “It was so well put together that you cannot even think of the images in disparate ways. You look at it as a whole, and it was a seamless narrative.”
WORLD PRESS PHOTO LONG-TERM PROJECT AWARD (Lalo de Almeida Using the Canon 5D Mk III and a DJI Drone)
Pirah√£ girls watch drivers passing by the Trans-Amazonian highway hoping to receive donations of snacks and sodas, next to their camp on the banks of the Maici river, in the Amazonas state. This mysterious indigenous tribe keep some of the same habits reported on the first time they met the white men, centuries ago, and refuse to learn Portuguese. The Amazon stretch of the highway (2,250 km, 10% paved) between the cities of L√°brea and Marab√° pictures the current Amazonian situation. The landscape consists largely of underused pastoral land, interspersed by protected areas and indigenous reserves which are under threat from loggers and miners. Burning of vegetation continues in the dry season and it is rare to glimpse any wild animals except for vultures.
A river boy plays with his dog in the Paratiz√£o community, on the banks of the Xingu River, near the dam of Belo Monte. The place is surrounded by great toothpick-like patches of dead trees, formed after the flooding of the reservoir, an area of nearly 516 km2. The rotting vegetation releases methane gas and is more harmful to the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide.
Mundurukus Indians line up to board a plane at Altamira Airport after protesting against the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River. The Mundurukus inhabit the banks of the Tapajós River, where the government has plans to build new hydroelectric projects. Even after counter pressure from indigenous people, environmentalists and non-governmental organizations, the Belo Monte project was built and completed in 2019.
Aerial view of Belo Monte’s main powerhouse construction site on the Xingu River, Brazil. More than 80 % of the water in the Xingu has been diverted from its natural course, making it one of the largest man-made interventions, comparable to what was done to construct the Panama Canal. With the dam and the detour of the Xingu for the construction and operation of the largest hydroelectric plant in the Amazon, in 2015, the quantity, speed and level of water in the region no longer derive from the natural flow of the river, but from the Norte Energia concessionaire responsible for operating Belo Monte. The company controls the volume of water that passes through the gates of the plant, going down the Volta Grande do Xingu ( Big Bend ), a 140 km stretch of the river with many rapids, channels and rock outcrops. With the risk of having up to 80% reduction in its flow, the region that holds two indigenous lands and hundreds of riverside families has been very impacted.
COSTA MARQUES, BRAZIL. 01/17/2021.A drunk resident sleeps on a bench in the central square of the quilombola community (former slaves) of Pedras Negras, in Rond√¥nia. The demarcation of lands of former slave communities was already slow before Jair Bolsonaro, especially in the Amazon region, but with the election of the president who promised during his campaign not to demarcate “any more centimeters of land for traditional communities”, this process has come to a complete halt. These communities, which are mostly extractivists, depend on the territory for their livelihood. With no prospects for change in the short term, young people end up migrating to the cities in search of work while the communities become increasingly empty and politically weaker.
ALTAMIRA, BRAZIL.18/07/2020. A billboard with a message of support to President Bolsonaro financed by local farmers in the city of Altamira, which is located along the Trans- Amazonian highway in Pará. Agribusiness is one of President Bolsonaro’s main pillars of political support, especially because they share the same view that environmental preservation is an obstacle to development. This government has weakened environmental enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations, which act as a counterweight, albeit unequal, to the predatory model of exploitation in the Amazon region.
Stray dogs stare at a butcher‚Äôs in the almost abandoned Vila da Ressaca, an area previously mined by gold seekers and soon to be explored exclusively by the Canadian mining company Belo Sun. The project, which is only a few kilometers from the Belo Monte dam, will be Brazil’s largest open pit gold mine. This will bring new impacts to a region already so affected by the construction of the hydroelectric plant.
Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida, Brazil, for Folha de São Paulo/Panos Pictures
The Amazon rainforest is under great threat, as deforestation, mining, infrastructural development and exploitation of other natural resources gain momentum under President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmentally regressive policies. Since 2019, devastation of the Brazilian Amazon has been running at its fastest pace in a decade. An area of extraordinary biodiversity, the Amazon is also home to more than 350 different Indigenous groups. The exploitation of the Amazon has a number of social impacts, particularly on Indigenous communities who are forced to deal with significant degradation of their environment, as well as their way of life
Global jury chair Rena Effendi about this story: “This project portrays something that does not just have negative effects on the local community but also globally, as it triggers a chain of reactions on a global level.”
The Winners
Here’s a list of the winners
Open World Format: Isadora Romero Using a Sony a7 and Sony a7r III
Africa Singles: Faiz Abubakr Mohamad Using a Nikon D750
Africa Stories: Kola Sulaimon (Sodiq Adelakun Adekola)
Humaira Mustapha, whose 2 daughters were kidnapped by gunmen at the Government Girls Secondary School, cries at her home, the day after the abduction of over 300 schoolgirls in Jangebe, a village in Zamfara State, northwest of Nigeria on February 27, 2021. – More than 300 schoolgirls were snatched from dormitories by gunmen in the middle of the night in northwestern Zamfara state on February 26, in the third known mass kidnapping of students since December. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
This photograph shows a deserted classroom at the Government Girls Secondary School, the day after the abduction of over 300 schoolgirls by gunmen in Jangebe, a village in Zamfara State, northwest of Nigeria on February 27, 2021. – More than 300 schoolgirls were snatched from dormitories by gunmen in the middle of the night in northwestern Zamfara state on February 26, in the third known mass kidnapping of students since December. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
Hassana Ayuba, one of the parents of the abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, shows the photo of her 14-year-old daughter (Judith) who was among the 140 students kidnapped by gunmen in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state, northwest Nigeria on July 15, 2021. – The girls are just two of the more than 100 Nigerian children snatched from Bethel Baptist High School nearly three weeks ago, herded by gunmen into the forests after a kidnapping raid on their dormitories. The July 5 attack in Nigeria’s northwest Kaduna state was just the latest mass abduction at a school or college as kidnap gangs seeking quick ransoms zero in on soft target of young students. Armed kidnappings for ransom along highways, and from homes and businesses now make almost daily newspaper headlines in Africa’s most populous country. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
TOPSHOT – The remaining wares of students of Bethel Baptist High School are seen inside the school premises as parent of abducted students pray for the return of their children whom were abducted by gunmen in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state, northwest Nigeria on July 14, 2021. – The girls are just two of the more than 100 Nigerian children snatched from Bethel Baptist High School nearly three weeks ago, herded by gunmen into the forests after a kidnapping raid on their dormitories. The July 5 attack in Nigeria’s northwest Kaduna state was just the latest mass abduction at a school or college as kidnap gangs seeking quick ransoms zero in on soft target of young students. Armed kidnappings for ransom along highways, and from homes and businesses now make almost daily newspaper headlines in Africa’s most populous country. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
African Long Term Projects: Rijasolo Riva Using a Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 5D Mk III, and Leica M8
Novembre 2020 – VILLAGE DE MATAVIAKOHO, Nord Menabe, Madagascar – Portrait de Jean Maximis NONON dans sa chambre à coucher, 45 ans, marié, père de 3 enfants, originaire de l’ethnie Antesaka. NONON est considéré par les autorités militaires et civiles comme l’un des plus dangereux chef dahalo de la région. NONON refuse qu’on le considère comme un dahalo. Il justifie la possession d’armes dans son village comme un moyen de se protéger lui-même des dahalo venant du Sud du Menabe qui l’agressent régulièrement selon ses dires. Pourtant de nombreux témoignages décrivent NONON comme un personnage cruel, déterminé et sans pitié. Il soumet les paysans locaux à son autorité et leur prélèvent une forme d’impôt obligatoire en nature ou en argent. Ainsi NONON possèderait 26 “campements” disséminés sur son territoire qui s’étend sur une cinquantaine de kilomètres carré, ce qui lui permet de contrôler les allées et venues dans cette zone, surtout les transhumances de convoi de zébu. Il serait en possession d’environ 2000 têtes de bovidés (contrairement au 300 têtes qu’il prétend seulement avoir) et peut rassembler 200 hommes pour mener des opérations d’envergure de vol de zébus. Les dahalo fonctionnent comme une mafia. Lourdement armés de fusils à deux ou cinq coups de type Baikal, ou d’armes de guerre type kalachnikov, ils vivent en communauté dans des villages coupés du reste du monde en autarcie complète et rackettent et volent régulièrement les villages voisins pour leur imposer une forme d’allégeance. Cette loyauté acquise sous la menace leur permet d’acheter le silence de la population locale au cas où des opérations militaires “anti-dahalo” sont menées. Il est communément admis que cette pratique du vol de zébu est issue d’une tradition venant des ethnies du Sud de Madagascar (Antesaka, Antandroy, Sara, etc) qui ont migré petit à petit vers le Nord dans les années 90/2000.
février 2013 – Betroka, MADAGASCAR – Le sergent Stéphane est un commando du Régiment des Forces d’Intervention (RFI) basé à Antananarivo. Son régiment opère dans la région de Betroka et dans les montagnes de l’Andriry afin de, comme il le précise, “chasser du dahalo”. L’opération Tandroka était une opération militaire d’envergure, lancé par les autorités en décembre 2012 pour tenter d’éradiquer le phénomène de vols et traffics de zébus. Les militaires ont rapidemment étaient accusés par Amnesty International d’avoir commis des exactions et tortures sur des villageois pendant leur raids.
JUIN 2014 – VILLAGE D’AMBATOTSIVALA, MADAGASCAR – Des gendarmes de l’opération militaire “Coup d’Arrêt”, s’inflitrent avec précaution dans le village d’Ambatotsivala considéré comme un village de dahalo par les autorités. En mai 2014, les habitants de ce village ont attaqué le village voisin d’Andranodambo situé 4km plus loin. Le lendemain, Ambatotsivala a été complètement détruit par les habitants d’Andranodambo, avec le soutien des militaires. Les habitants d’Ambatotsivala, considérés comme dahalo par les autorités militaires, s’étaient alors enfuis dans les montagnes voisines.
Juin 2014 – VILLAGE D’ANDRANODAMBO, MADAGASCAR – Des gendarmes de l’opération militaire “Coup d’Arrêt”, destinée à lutter contre les dahalo (voleurs de zébus) dans les régions du Sud de Madagascar, patrouillent dans les ruines du village d’Andranodambo victime d’une attaque du village voisin d’Ambatotsivala situé 4km plus loin. Andranodambo, un grand village d’environ 2000 habitants, a été complètement détruit. Ses habitants, à présent sans abris, se sont réfugiés à Tranomaro et Amboasary-Sud. Les habitants d’Ambatotsivala, considérés comme dahalo par les autorités militaires, s’étaient enfuis dans les montagnes voisines.
Juin 2014 – AMBOASARY-SUD, MADAGASCAR – ETOSOA MIHARY (à gauche), 21 ans, et TSIRY TAMA (droite), 30 ans, deux habitants du village d’Ambatotsivala, considéré comme un village de dahalo (voleurs de zébus) par les autorités, ont été arrêtés par la gendarmerie car suspectés du meurtre d’un habitant d’Andranodambo. En mai 2014, les habitants d’Ambatotsilava ont attaqué le village voisin d’Andranodambo situé 4km plus loin. Le lendemain, le Amabatotsilava a été attaqué par les habitants d’Andranodambo avec le soutien des militaires.
Juin 2014 – AMBOASARY-SUD, MADAGASCAR – Distribution d’huile et de riz pour les 1200 réfugiés sans-abri du village d’Andranodambo à Amboasary-Sud. Cette distribution est organisée par l’Etat et la Croix Rouge Malagasy. Le village d’Andranodambo a été victime d’une attaque du village voisin d’Ambatotsivala le 8 mai 2014. Le village d’environ 2000 habitants, a été complètement détruit. Les habitants d’Ambatotsivala, considérés comme dahalo par les autorités militaires, s’étaient enfuis dans les montagnes voisines.
Novembre 2020 – Ranch Andranovory, Madagascar – Des bouviers viennent d’attraper à la corde un zébu sauvage de l’espèce “barea” afin de pouvoir le dompter et le maîtriser. Ainsi il pourra faire partie d’un convoi avec d’autres zébus qui partira d’Antsalova pour rejoindre le deuxième plus grand marché aux zébus de Madagascar à Tsiroanomandidy à environ 10 jours de marche vers l’Est. Là-bas il sera vendu à l’acheteur le plus offrant qui devra débourser environ 2 millions d’Ariary (440 euros) pour l’obtenir. Les bouviers travaillent pour un grand éleveur de bétail et peuvent être parfois issus de la même famille ou clan que celui de leur patron. Le métier de bouvier est l’une des activités professionnelles les plus pratiquées par les jeunes hommes en zone rural et dans des régions qui produisent beaucoup de zébus comme ici la région Melaky dans l’Ouest de Madagascar. Ces bouviers sont payés à la tâche : pour chaque barea sauvage capturé, l’équipe est payée 100.000 Ariary (20 euros). Les “barea” sont les zébus endémiques de Madagascar réputés plus robustes, plus imposants, mais aussi plus difficiles à dompter par rapport au zébu commun historiquement originaire d’Inde. Le zébu est un animal emblématique dans la culture malgache surtout en zone rural. Il est tantôt un outil de travail pour aider les paysans à labourer et cultiver la terre, tantôt un animal sâcré que l’on sacrifie lors de cérémonie traditionnelle pour honorer la mémoire des ancêtres. Mais c’est finalement en ville que le zébu est le plus prisé car sa viande est particulièrement recherchée par les restaurants et les ménages qui ont les moyens d’en acheter.
Novembre 2020 – Plateau du Bongolava, Madagascar – Louis KASAY et ses 8 bouviers avec leur 13 zébus de l’espèce barea traversent le plateau du Bongolava. L’ascension du plateau du Bongolava est difficile et éprouvante, surtout pour les zébus qui doivent franchir un dénivelé de 900 mètres pour enfin arriver sur les Hauts-Plateaux de Madagascar où vit principalement la population de l’ethnie Merina dans le centre de la Grande Île. Les “barea” sont les zébus endémiques de Madagascar réputés plus robustes, plus imposants, mais aussi plus difficiles à dompter par rapport au zébu commun historiquement originaire d’Inde. Le zébu est un animal emblématique dans la culture malgache surtout en zone rural. Il est tantôt un outil de travail pour aider les paysans à labourer et cultiver la terre, tantôt un animal sâcré que l’on sacrifie lors de cérémonie traditionnelle pour honorer la mémoire des ancêtres. Mais c’est finalement en ville que le zébu est le plus prisé car sa viande est particulièrement recherchée par les restaurants et les ménages qui ont les moyens d’en acheter.
Africa Open Format: Rehab Eldalil Using the Nikon Z7, Nikon D810, and Huawei LX1A
Seliman holds the Khodary plant in his family garden in Gharba Valley, St. Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt. October 2020. Seliman manages an ecolodge with his cousins in Gharba valley but as the pandemic spreads throughout Egypt, less and less guests come to stay at the ecolodge and now the family redirects their focus on the family gardens. “We don’t have Corona here, but we are affected by it. Look, these plants are our face masks.” says Seliman.
Up until the 1990’s women were prohibited from being seen by men from other tribes without consent. As the technology evolved, the awareness of the circulation of an image on social media and lack of control of who gets access to an image escalated this concern, leading some women from never being photographed in fear of uncontrolling its access, circulation and how they’re represented. Collaboratively working with the female Bedouins, every woman Iphotograph adds embroidery on to her portrait printed on fabric. She has the freedom to reveal or conceal using the traditional medium of embroidery. Taking full control over her representation in the project. Embroidered photograph of Nadia (20) by her and her cousin Mariam (19) from AlTarfa village.
Oh valley, your love is a home for the soul’s joy Whenever I see you my heart grows I come to you in longing full of pains My soul returns to me as I approach your grounds By Seliman Abdel Rahman
Kabbath cactus plant. Breastfeeding mothers use the sour tasting liquid inside its stems to help wean their babies.
“We’re almost there” -A Bedou’ white lie to get you to the top of the mountain. The Milkyway appears on top of Sheikh Awad village which only gets electricity for 5 hours a day. Stars has long been the Bedou’ guide through the desert.
Seliman dragging a plastic sheet to dry his plant harvest on. October 2020.
Embroidered photograph of Hajja Oum Mohamed (53) in her garden in Gharba Valley. Embroidery by her.
Embroidered photograph of Mahmoud in his home in AlTarfa village. Embroidery by his cousin Nora from AlTarfa village.
Africa Honorable Mention: Amanuel Sileshi Using Sony a7 II and Sony a7 III
A boy walks past a fog near village of Chenna, 95 kilometers northeast from the city of Gondar, Ethiopia, on September 14, 2021.
Abeba Tseganeh, 27, shows her house roof which she says it was attacked by the Tigray’s People Libration Front in the village of Zarima, 140 kilometers from Gondar, Ethiopia, on September 16, 2021.
Hailemariam Girma, 21, looks on in a looted school in which he says it was allegedly looted by Tigray rebels in Mesobit, Ethiopia, on December 06, 2021.
A horse rider rides past a destroyed tank in Mesobit, Ethiopia, on December 06, 2021.
Asia Singles: Fatima Shbair using the Fujifilm XT2
GAZA CITY, GAZA – MAY 25: Palestinian children hold candles during a rally amid the ruins of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, in Beit Lahia Northern Gaza Strip on May 25, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza. Gaza residents returned to damaged and destroyed homes as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding. The ceasefire brings to an end eleven days of fighting which killed more than 250 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and 13 Israelis. The conflict began on May 10th after rising tensions in East Jerusalem and clashes at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
Asia Stories: Bram Janssen Using the Sony a7 III
Gul Mohammed, who works as a host in the Ariana Cinema, poses for a photograph in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. After seizing power three months ago, the Taliban ordered cinemas to stop operating.(AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Asita Ferdous sits inside her home in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. She’s the director of the Ariana Cinema and is not allowed to enter the cinema because the Taliban ordered female government employees to stay away from their workplaces. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Rahmatullah Ezati plays back a film roll in the projectionist room of the Ariana Cinema in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. The cinema’s staff still show up at work every day hoping they will eventually get paid, despite the Taliban’s orders to stop operating. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
A staff member walks in the hallways of the Ariana Cinema on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. The cinema’s staff still show up at work every day hoping they will eventually get paid, despite the Taliban’s orders to stop operating. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Asia Open Format: Kosuke Okahara
Asia Honorable Mention: Dar Yasin Using the Canon 1D X and Canon 1D X Mk II
A Kashmiri, inspecting a house where suspected rebels had taken refuge, is seen through a hole created by a mortar shell fired by government forces during a gunfight, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 16, 2021. Two suspected rebels were killed in a gunfight in in the disputed region’s main city on Friday, officials said, as violence increased in recent weeks.
A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim throws back tear gas shell fired by Indian police during a religious procession in central Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021.Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse hundreds of Shiite Muslims, while detaining dozens who attempted to participate in processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram.
Kashmiri women cross a stone wall to join the funeral of Rameez Ahmad, a policeman who was killed in Monday’s gun attack, in Yachama, northeast of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. Ahmad and two other policemen were killed when gunmen sprayed with bullets a bus carrying police on the outskirts of Srinagar, the region’s main city, wounding fourteen officers. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Photographs of Kashmiri Sufi saints are seen on the bullet ridden wall of the house damaged in a gunbattle in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, July 16, 2021. Two suspected rebels were killed in a gunfight in in the disputed city’s region’s main city on Friday, officials said, as violence in the disputed region has increased in recent weeks.
Europe Singles: Konstantinos Tsakalidis Using Canon 5D Mk IV
Kritsiopi Panayiota, 81 years old, reacts as a wildfire approaches her house in the village of Gouves on Evia island, Greece on August 8, 2021. following a long heatwave period, the hottest weather Greece has seen for 30 years, thousands of residents were evacuated by boat after wildfires hit Greece’s second largest island.
Europe Stories: Nanna Heitmann Using Leica M10, Film, and the Canon EOS R5
Europe Long Term Projects: Guillaume Herbaut Using the Nikon D3, Nikon D800, and the Nikon z7 II
Ukraine, Kotovsk, 19 December 2013 Cheminots Park, the Lenin statue was destroyed in the night of December 8-9, 2013. Ukraine, Kotovsk, 19 décembre 2013 Parc des Cheminots, la statue de Lénine a été détruite dans la nuit du 8 au 9 Décembre 2013. Guillaume Herbaut / Agence VU
Ukraine, Kyiv, 22 January 2014 Hrushevskoho street. Since January 21, violent confrontations take place between law enforcement and pro-EU protestors. The special anti-riot units, the Berkouts, use weapons against the masses. At the end of the day, they count five dead and many hundred wounded. Ukraine, Kiev, 22 janvier 2014 Rue Hrushevskoho. Des affrontements violents se déroulent entre forces de l’ordre et manifestants pro-européens depuis le 21 janvier. Les unités spéciales antiémeutes, les Berkouts, utilisent des armes à feu contre la foule. À la fin de la journée, on dénombre cinq morts et plusieurs centaines de blessés. Guillaume Herbaut / Agence VU
Ukraine, Mariupol, 29 September 2014 Women making ghillie camouflage gear for snipers at the Novy Mariupol center, an organization that collects equipment for Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine, Marioupol, 29 septembre 2014 Des femmes préparent une tenue de camouflage pour sniper dans les locaux de Novy Marioupol, une organisation collectant du matériel pour les forces militaires ukrainiennes. Guillaume Herbaut / Agence VU
Ukraine, Shyrokyne, 29 November 2021 Fortifications on the beach of the town of Shyrokyne which is located along the Sea of Azov and is today on the front line. Ukraine, Shyrokyne, 29 novembre 2021 Fortifications sur la plage de La ville de Shyrokyne qui est située le long de la mer d’Azov et est aujourd’hui sur la ligne de front. Guillaume Herbaut / Agence VU
Europe Open Format: Jonas Bendiksen Using Sony a7r III
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- Two fake news producers who do not want to be identified pose with ‘Anonymous masks’ on. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- A man keeps warm by an oil barrel fire, in front of the closed steel smelter which was once a cornerstone of Veles industry. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- Natasha editing content for the fake news website she works for, with a painting of the God Veles and a bear in the background. Veles was a anceint Slavic god of Mischief, chaos and magic, and often took the shpae of a bear himself. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- A bear comes down for a drink of water at the banks of the Vardar river, which runs through the town. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- Armed police stand guard on the outskirts of Veles. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- A local couple who make their lviing of running a fake news website (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- Tamara, a local woman who writes for several of Veles fake news sites, poses for a portrait (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
-All the images in this series are manipulated and partially computer generated, with a completion date of February 2021- The laptop of the fake news producer lies on the kitchen counter in a Veles apartment. (fictional caption). ‘The Book of Veles’ is a photographic exploration of the phenomena of fake news and synthetic information. The book was published in April 2021, appearing to be an ordinary documentary photo book about the town of Veles in North Macedonia. The town placed itself on the world map in 2016 as an epicenter for the production of fake news, when local youth set up hundreds of news websites that pretended to be American news portals. These sites, with names such as NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, spread to millions of people through Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms. While the goal of the sites’ creators was simply to earn money through banner ads, they could also have inadvertently have had a real impact on the election of Donald Trump. The book also weaves in a story about a mischievous pre-Christian pagan bear-god called Veles and the 1919 ‘discovery’ of a forged ‘ancient’ manuscript called the Book of Veles. After my book had been sold for half a year, had been shared on my social media channels and had even been screened at a photojournalism festival, I revealed (through a fake social media profile) that the whole photographic project itself was a forgery: All the people pictured in the book are in fact computer-generated 3D models which I posed and inserted into empty background tableaus from Veles. Many of the animals and important objects in the series were also non-camera-based renderings. The text in the book was written by an AI machine learning system called GPT-2. In essence, Book of Veles is a fake story about real people who made fake news.
Europe Honorable Mention: Mary Gelman using the Canon 6D Mk II and scans
North and Central America Stories: Ismail Ferdous using the Fujifilm GFX 50s and Film
Amjad Farman, 26, arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska from a refugee camp in Turkey. He is originally a Yazidi from Iraq. He is been working in a Smart Chicken processing plant in Lincoln.
North and Central America Long Term Project: Louie Palu using an Unknown Camera
Two activists wear beaked masks like doctors wore in the 17th century during times of plague, seeking to draw the attention of spectators around Capitol Hill. Their message: Refusing to be vaccinated will prolong the COVID-19 pandemic. On the same day, two House subcommittees held a joint hearing titled “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.”
A U.S. Marine from the White House practicing opening smashed doors at the Capitol building in Washington D.C. the day before the inauguration of Joe Biden as President and Kamala Harris as Vice President of the United States. This was one of several doors which were damaged and where a mob breached the Capitol building attempting to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
National Guard soldiers rest inside the Capitol. In a time of great unrest and uncertainty, the troops were called in to help protect the complex from a future attack by right-wing militants. The National Guard stayed for five months, reaching a top deployment of almost 26,000 service members from across the country.
Ejected from the Capitol, an elated Trump supporter pumps his first. At a rally on the Ellipse, Trump told the crowd that he’d won the election by a landslide and encouraged his supporters to take bold action. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness,” he said. “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
Police fight off pro-Trump attackers in a Capitol hallway using batons and rubber projectiles after they assaulted police and vandalized offices. The Capitol complex was locked down, and elected officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, were hastily evacuated. Protesters searched for Pence, who they believed could throw the election to Trump. Pence, who presided over the electoral count, later said the protesters “desecrated the seat of our democracy.”
In a tree on the Ellipse near the White House, two men with a dog watch the “Save America” rally. Trump and his allies promoted false claims about how the election was stolen. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said. Those words stirred supporters to march to the Capitol and were later cited as evidence by House Democrats that Trump should be impeached.
President Donald Trump at The White House announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Guests in the front row included First lady Melania Trump, Vice President Pence, Tiffany Trump and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Some in attendance later tested positive for COVID-19 and the event become known as a super spreader event for the virus. At least 37 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed within 12 days after Barrett’s nomination event on September 26.
To commemorate the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, other House Democrats and aides participate in a ceremony on the Capitol’s steps. At 8:46 a.m., the time of the first attack, they observed a moment of silence, and then they sang a verse of “God Bless America.” As the pandemic escalated, more people died in the United States every day than died in the terrorist attacks.
North and Central America Open Format: Yael Martinez the Canon EOS R5
The opium gum extracted from the poppy flower is transformed into heroin in Mexico and almost entirely exported to the United States and Canada.Poppy flower. Guerrero mexico On december 13 2020. Intervened photography
Portrait of a young man living in a community that grows poppies. Guerrero Mexico On february 9 2021.Intervened photography.
Every December 31, the Na Savi indigenous communities climb the Cerro de la Garza to perform rituals that commemorate the end and beginning of a cycle. Guerrero Mexico on december 31 2020 Intervened photography.
Every December 31, the Na Savi indigenous communities climb the Cerro de la Garza to perform rituals that commemorate the end and beginning of a cycle. Guerrero Mexico on december 31 2020 Intervened photography.
Abuelo-Estrella. An elder in the Garza hill.For the Na savi people, elders are respected since they contain wisdom and connection with our mother earth. Every December 31, the Na Savi indigenous communities climb the Cerro de la Garza to perform rituals that commemorate the end and beginning of a cycle. Guerrero Mexico On December 31 2020.
North and Central America Honorable Mention: Sarah Reingewirtz Using the Nikon D4 and Nikon D5
Midwife Angie Miller listens to the heart beat of MyLin Stokes Kennedy’s baby with her wife Lindsay and their child Lennox, 21 months, at their Fountain Valley home on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
A chicken runs through Midwife Racha Tahani Lawler’s garden as she sits in the space where she meets with women on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. She once owned a community birth center to help her community but without insurance covering midwifery found it to be difficult to sustain and now does home births.
While Aysha rests, her partner Dennis Richmond touches their son after catching their baby in the birthing bath on Mother’s Day night, May 9, 2021.
Aysha-Samon Stokes son Wyatt, 17 months, jumps on her as her Midwife Kimberly Durdin begins to check her baby at Kindred Space LA, a birthing center Durdin opened during the pandemic with another midwife in South Los Angeles, on Thursday, April 9, 2021. With fear of another C-Section and fear of the high mortality rate in the hospitals among women like herself Stokes found her midwife in her third trimester.
South America Single: Vladimir Encina Using the Nikon D3200
South America Stories: Irina Werning using the Canon 5D Mk IV
CAPTION: Antonella is back to school after having missed 260 days of in-person class. The covid crises has tested education systems in unprecedented ways. We need to learn from our lessons and make a more effective, equitable and resilient education system to better withstand future shocks. Antonella poses outside the Univeridad de Ingenieria de Buenos Aires, place where she asked her father to take her. She wanted to have her portrait taken there because her ambition is to study engineering after finishing school. NOTE: The portrait was taken with the explicit consent and in full cooperation with the subject’s mother. Both the parents and the subject were adequately informed of the nature, purpose and distribution of the project.
CAPTION: Antonella gets sleepy while studying, she often studies in bed. She feels lack of motivation. “Nothing beats being in the classroom”, she says. In this picture, I captured the moment she yawns while studying language. Sometimes she studies from bed as she lacks the motivation to get up. NOTE: The portrait was taken with the explicit consent and in full cooperation with the subject’s mother. Both the parents and the subject were adequately informed of the nature, purpose and distribution of the project.
CAPTION: Antonella goes up to her terrace to wash clothes and enjoy the sun every day. The disruption to routines, education, recreation, as well as concern for family income and health is leaving Antonella feeling afraid, anxious and concerned for her future. Antonella washed a black faux fur blanket the family has on top of her parents‚Äô bed. She poses for her portrait in front of the fur and asks me to take a picture of her hair to celebrate it because it means so much NOTE: The portrait was taken with the explicit consent and in full cooperation with the subject’s mother. Both the parents and the subject were adequately informed of the nature, purpose and distribution of the project.
CAPTION: Antonella zooms in her room on her mother‚Äôs mobile phone, which is always available for her virtual classes. (Buenos Aires, Argentina, The pandemic placed technology as a strategic tool for equality of opportunities. There is a significant digital divide (access to internet, access to devices) in Latin America which threatens the accessibility of remote learning and other education technologies to all. Antonella was studying via zoom with friends for her Biology course during the weekend. She had to do a group project and each student would take turns to participate with parents monitoring the participation. (June 2021, Buenos Aires, Argentina). Antonella is very lucky that her parents are truly obsessed that their daughter keeps up to date with her education and organize via watsap with other mothers group studies virtual get togethers. Her sister shares the small room with her and stays in her bed when she is in class because the room is very small. Carolina is 23 and she helps her parents organize Antonella‚Äôs virtual schedule and make sure she attends all classes and does her group projects with her school mates. NOTE: The portrait was taken with the explicit consent and in full cooperation with the subject’s mother. Both the parents and the subject were adequately informed of the nature, purpose and distribution of the project.
South America Honorable Mention: Viviana Peretti using a Rolleiflex
Skulls of people killed by different ‘actors of the conflict’ (guerrilla, paramilitaries, state agents or even the Army) are kept in the laboratory at the ENAC (National School of Criminalistic and Forensic Science, Escuela Nacional de Criminalística y Ciencias Forenses) in Medellín, the capital of the region of Antioquia in Colombia. Medellín, Antioquia region, Colombia, January 2017.
Southeast Asia and Oceania: Anonymous for the NY Times Using the Canon 6D (No, Seriously)
Protesters using slingshots and other homemade weapons in a clash with security forces in March. “You see these young men with slingshots and homemade weapons that could barely kill a bird, facing a military,” The Times’ photographer said. “They’re fighting for their freedom and democracy.”
Southeast Asia and Oceania: Abriansyah Liberto using the Canon 7D and Canon 5D Mk II
Ria Susanti menunjukkan rontgen paru-paru putrinya Fadhila Rahma yang meninggal karena infeksi saluran pernapasan akut yang diduga akibat terpapar kabut asap dari kebakaran hutan dan lahan, Palembang, Selasa (3/11/2015).
Bara api lahan gambut dari kebakaran lahan di Desa Rambutan, Kabupaten Ogan Ilir, Kamis (22/10/2015).
Sumapaz Páramo is the world’s largest páramo (alpine tundra) ecosystem. Despite being within the jurisdiction of the bustling city of Bogotá, its name literally translates to “utterly peaceful moorland”. The Sumapaz was considered a sacred place for the Muisca indigenous people. It was associated with the divine forces of creation and the origin of mankind, a domain where humans were not supposed to enter. The average altitude oscillates between 3500 and 4000m. In recent years, illegal armed groups such as FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and ELN (National Liberation Army, Ejército de Liberación Nacional) guerrillas used the area as a corridor for the transportation of kidnapping victims, weapon trafficking, drug trafficking and as a place of burial for victims of forced disappearance. According to Colombia’s National Centre for Historic Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica, CNMH), 82.998 people were forcibly disappeared in the country between 1958 and 2017, at an average rate of one disappearance every six hours over 59 years. Nine out of ten of these individuals are still missing today. Impunity is the essence of forced disappearance. There is neither a body nor a motive and, therefore, no culprit. Most of the disappeared have been killed and thrown into anonymous mass graves, rivers, mangroves, sugar mills, and crematorium ovens. Even the digestive systems of animals have served as the destination for many of the missing. Forensic anthropologist John Fredy Ramirez Santana, who has performed hundreds of exhumations in different regions of the country, describes Colombia as a ‘huge, anonymous mass grave’. Bogotá, Capital District, Colombia, July 2017.
Relatives of the victims of forced disappearance protest in front of the Palace of Justice in Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá. The Palace was totally destroyed and burned down in November 1985 when guerrillas from the now-defunct 19th of April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril, M-19) broke into the building and took about 300 people hostage. The M-19 members intended to hold a trial against the then president Belisario Betancur, because of the failures and difficulties in the peace process they had agreed to months before. The Army repelled the takeover by storming the Palace with tanks and rockets, leaving a balance of 94 people killed—including 11 court judges—, dozens injured and 11 missing, mostly cafeteria employees, visitors, and Irma Franco Pineda, a lawyer and guerrilla member who participated in the M-19 siege. More than 1,000 soldiers took part in the operation to combat the 35 guerrillas. More than 6,000 files were destroyed in the fire of the Palace, including several processes against military personnel for human rights violations. Bogotá, Capital District, Colombia, July 2017.
The hands of the relatives of disappeared people in Colombia and the photographs of the missing on a wall in the headquarters of Mothers of La Candelaria (Madres de La Candelaria), an organization created in Medellín in March 1999 in response to the many forced disappearances taking place in Colombia. Every Friday the mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, nieces, cousins and aunts of hundreds of Colombians who in the last decades have been disappeared by state agents, members of paramilitary and guerrilla groups, politicians, or even civilians, meet in front of Iglesia de La Candelaria in the city center of Medellín, Colombia. They shout: ‘They took our loved ones alive, alive we want them back’, although many know that they will never see their loved ones alive again. Perhaps a few remains in a wooden box, if the Colombian government keeps the promise to restore to them what is left of what one day was taken away. Medellín, Antioquia region, Colombia, July 2016.
Nidia Manzera (64) flips through her memory diary sitting on a bench in the outskirt of the town of Villeta in Colombia. Nidia is the mother of Deiber Castaño Mancera (24), disappeared in the city of Villavicencio, in the Meta region of Colombia, on March 1, 2003. After the disappearance of her son, Nidia was displaced with the accusation of being an Army informant. The diary of memory is a notebook that Nidia has built in recent years with photos of her son Deiber and thoughts. The photo was taken the day before the 17th anniversary of Deiber’s disappearance. Nidia says she hopes that her son is alive and that someday he will go back home. Villeta, Cundinamarca region, Colombia, May 2020.
Members of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, MOVICE) protest in front of the Prosecutor’s Office bunker in Bogotá, Colombia. The protest was organized because of the exponential increase in the number of murders and disappearances of social leaders, human rights activists, and former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerrillas who demobilized after the signing of a milestone peace agreement with the Colombian government in November 2016. In 2020 alone, the United Nations Office for Human Rights in Colombia has documented 66 massacres, in which 255 people were killed, in 18 regions of the country. In addition, the Office has received information about the assassination of 120 human rights defenders. Since the signing of the Peace Agreement in November 2016, the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia has also documented 292 killings of former FARC combatants. Bogotá, Capital District, Colombia, December 2020.
The remains of a body exhumed in El Universal cemetery of Medellín, Colombia. Between July and August 2016, Colombian authorities promoted the search for the remains of nine people who had been killed and disappeared by the Army in association with the paramilitaries during the ‘Operación Orion’ that took place in the Comuna 13 district of Medellín in 2002. The nine victims of extrajudicial executions were reported missing and, according to information, were buried in mass graves in El Universal. The size and drama of forced disappearance are compounded by the absence of adequate official processes to safeguard and identify the body of the victims. Thus, every time a corpse is improperly identify and sheltered —as happened during decades in El Universal where hundreds of victims of extrajudicial crimes were buried in mass graves without registration, thus avoiding any chance of being found and those responsible being judged— a second disappearance and victimization is imposed. After two weeks of excavations in El Universal, a team of forensic anthropologists, officials, and technicians found two of the nine bodies they were looking for. Both were buried in mass graves. They also found the remains of other 14 people registered as missing in other towns of the region. Medellín, Antioquia region, Colombia, July 2016.
Police station in Toribío, a small village in the Colombian region of Cauca. Since the 1980s, Toribío has counted more than 600 attacks by leftist guerrillas within the framework of the Colombian internal conflict. It is estimated that 41 people have died and 600 have been wounded. The most violent attack was perpetrated by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) on July 8, 2011, when a chiva (bus) bomb destroyed the police station, located near the market. The explosion occurred at ten o’clock in the morning, when the market was crowded. At least three people died and seventy were injured. Since the attack, the police station in Toribío is heavily protected and watched over. Despite the signing of a milestone peace agreement between the government and the FARC in 2016, the Cauca region continues to have one of the highest rates of violence and killings in Colombia. Toribío, Cauca region, Colombia, August 2018.
Southeast Asia and Oceania Open Format: Charinthorn Rachurutchata
Southeast Asia and Oceania Honorable Mention: Ta Mwe Sacca
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters demand free all political leaders as police blocks the road during the anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar on 9 February 2021.
Pro-democracy protesters chanting and posing three-finger salute during an anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar on 31 March 2021.
A memorial where protester Chit Min Thu, 24, was shot dead with live ammunition by military is seen in Yangon, Myanmar on 11 March 2021.
Young protestor girl urges military to restore democracy during the anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar on 15 February 2021.
