World Press Photo 2007

The winners for the World Press Photo for 2007 were announced. The 1st prize went to Tim Hetherington for his photo of a US soldier resting in bunker. There is so much “between the lines” I would say if this would be prose, but probably I should just say that it is a very talkative photo.However, I think that there were much better photos in the competition, who would have deserved the 1st prize. For example, the photos of Balazs Gardi (winner in two categories) are a real “treat”. The picture of an old man holding a young wounded boy seems almost from Biblical times. The face of the boy shows no pain, rather deep sadness and disappointment, while the old man is looking upwards at something which is not in the picture. Hard to describe it, but for me it is almost the perfect picture. The photos of Cedric Guberhaye from Congo are also impressive. 

At each World  Press Photo I used to pay attention to the countries/hotspots shown by the winners. I think this is a very good way to see where the media focused its attention during the last year. The first place goes to… Kenya! In the last 4 days of the year, the Kenyan election managed to grab the media attention to this extent. Amazing. Other hotspots: Zimbabwe, Colombia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Darfur, Congo and Chad. Five of the above mentioned are in Africa!

The Sport category looks great this year. Three of my favourites are: Ivaylov’s picture of a skier escaping the avalanche, the body boarder and the Yoga performers. I am happy that Erik Refner also collected something this year, have been paying attention to his work, but have to say that I rather prefer his photojournalism work. His Darfur pictures are still one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

See the winners on the World Press Photo website.