Saturday, February 11, 2012

Arab Spring shot wins World Press Photo award

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 2012 World Press Photo of the year by Samuel Aranda, Spain, for The New York Times, shows a woman holding a wounded relative during protests against president Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Oct. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Samuel Aranda/New York Times)

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 2012 World Press Photo of the year by Samuel Aranda, Spain, for The New York Times, shows a woman holding a wounded relative during protests against president Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Oct. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Samuel Aranda/New York Times)

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 2nd prize Arts and Entertainment Singles category of the 2012 World Press Photo contest by Vincent Boisot, France, Riva Press for Le Figaro Magazine, shows a model posing in front of tailor stalls in the center of Dakar, Senegal, July 9, 2011. She wears the creation of a designer, Yolande Mancini, participating in the 9th edition of Dakar Fashion Week. (AP Photo/Vincent Boisot/Riva press for Le Figaro Magazine)

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 1st prize Contemporary Issues Singles category of the 2012 World Press Photo contest by Brent Stirton, South Africa, Reportage by Getty Images for Kiev Independent, shows Maria, a drug addict and sex worker, in between clients in a room she rents in Kryvyi Rig, Ukraine. Maria injects drugs on a daily basis and sees many men every week but claims she remains HIV negative. She says she need the money to support herself, her drug habit and her nine-year-old daughter. (AP Photo/Brent Stirton, Reportage by Getty Images for Kiev Independent)

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 1st prize Arts and Entertainment Stories category of the 2012 World Press Photo contest by Rob Hornstra, The Netherlands shows the Sochi Project: Sochi Singers Marika Bajur sings 'Kuriu' in the restaurant Eurasia. (AP Photo/Rob Hornstra)

In this photo provided on Friday Feb. 10, 2012 by World Press Photo, the 2nd prize Spot News Stories of the 2012 World Press Photo contest by Niclas Hammerstrom, Sweden, for Aftonbladet in Utoya, Norway, July 22, 2011. Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people on 22 July on the small island of Utoya outside Oslo in Norway. (AP Photo/Niclas Hammerstrom/ Aftonbladet )

(AP) ? Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award Friday for an image of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen.

Jurors said Aranda's photo, taken for The New York Times, encapsulated many facets of the uprisings across the Middle East known as the Arab Spring, one of the major news events of the year.

The photo was taken Oct. 15 in a mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, that was being used as field hospital after demonstrators protesting the rule of Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed with government forces.

"The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on," said chairman Aidan Sullivan. "We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East."

The woman is almost completely concealed under black robes as she clasps her relative, a thin man whose torso is bare, grimacing in pain.

Sullivan said Aranda thought the man might have been the woman's husband, but he was not sure. He said the image has religious "almost Biblical" overtones and noted its resemblance in composition to Michelangelo's Pieta ? but in a Muslim setting.

"It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring," said juror Koyo Kouoh. "But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on, and it shows the role that women played, not only as caregivers but as active people in the movement."

The tsunami in Japan was another major theme of the competition. Japanese photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba took first prize in the People in the News Stories category for Agence France Presse for images including an April 3 photo of a Japanese woman standing alone and holding her daughter's graduation certificate aloft after she found it amid a swirl of debris in Higashimatsushima.

The Associated Press won three awards, including first place in the Arts and Entertainment Singles category, for David Goldman's shot of a soldier playing the drums at a Canadian army base in Afghanistan.

In all, 57 photographers from 24 countries won awards in a field of more than 5,000 professional photographers, who submitted more than 100,000 entries.

The jury also itself nominated a photo taken by an unidentified amateur for special mention: a still image taken from a video of a Libyan National Transition Council fighter pulling Moammar Gadhafi onto a military vehicle in Sirte, Libya, on Oct. 20.

"The photo captures a historic moment, an image of a dictator and his demise that we otherwise would not have seen, had it not been photographed by a member of the public," Sullivan said.

Aranda's photo also took first place in the "People in the News Singles" category. He will get euro10,000 ($13,300) at an awards ceremony later this year.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-02-10-EU-World-Press-Photo/id-5d54c6f75b9c4592a2a7ea64f38eb099

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