Climate, community, impacts of war: 2023 World Press Photo Contest winners announced
Camille Fine, USA TODAY
·2 min read
The climate crisis, community, war’s impact on civilians, and the importance of press photography were highlighted by this year’s World Press Photo Contest global winners.
The four global winners announced Thursday — selected from 24 regional winners, which were chosen from more than 60,000 entries — “represent the best photos and stories from the most important and urgent topics of 2022,” New York Times photo editor and Global jury chair Brent Lewis said.
“They also help to continue the tradition of what it is possible to do with photography, and how photography helps us to see the universality of the human condition,” added Lewis, also a co-founder of Diversify Photo.
FILE- Iryna Kalinina, 32, an injured pregnant woman, is carried from a maternity hospital that was damaged during a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on 9 March 2022. Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday, April 20, 2023, for this harrowing image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.
The photo of the year was unanimously chosen to go to Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, who documented a 32-year-old injured pregnant woman, Iryna Kalinina, while on assignment for the Associated Press during the siege of Mariupol amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Maloletka took a harrowing photograph of Kalinina while she was being carried from a maternity hospital that was deliberately targeted by Russia. The attacks resulted in three deaths and some 17 injuries, an OSCE report concluded.
"I think it is really important that specifically a Ukrainian won the contest showing the atrocities against civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine," he said. "It is important that all the pictures we were doing in Mariupol became evidence of a war crime against Ukrainians,” Maloletka told the Associated Press.
FILE- Russian army tanks move through a street on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, March 11, 2022. Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won the World Press Photo Europe Stories Award with this image which was part of a series of images titled The Siege of Mariupol, and won the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday, April 20, 2023, for his harrowing image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.
Serhiy Kralya, a civilian injured during shelling by Russian forces, rests after surgery at a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on 11 March 2022. Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won the World Press Photo Europe Stories Award with this image which was part of a series of images titled The Siege of Mariupol, and won the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday, April 20, 2023, for his harrowing image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.
Janna Goma, right, with her family settle in a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka won the World Press Photo Europe Stories Award with this image which was part of a series of images titled The Siege of Mariupol, and won the World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday, April 20, 2023, for his harrowing image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.
World Press Photo of the Year award winner, Associated Press photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, looks at his winning image of a pregnant woman being carried through the wreckage of a maternity hospital after a Russian military strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, prior to a press conference announcing the winners in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, April 20, 2023.
Kalinina, whose baby named Miron was stillborn, died.
“With the vote being decided on the first anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the jury mentioned the power of the image and the story behind it, as well as the atrocities it shows. The death of both the pregnant woman and her child summarized so much of the war, as well as the possible intent of Russia,” Lewis said.
Danish photographer Mads Nissen, a two-time World Press Photo winner, won Photo Story of the Year for his series for Politiken and Panos Pictures, titled "The Price of Peace in Afghanistan," about daily life in Afghanistan in 2022.
Armenian photographer Anush Babajanyan won the Long-Term Project award for "Battered Waters" for VII Photo and National Geographic Society.
Israeli police clash with mourners as they carry the coffin of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in east Jerusalem, on May 13, 2022. Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for more than 25 years, was shot dead two days earlier during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. Photographer Maya Levin, for the Associated Pres, won the Asia Singles Category of the World Press Photo Contest, announced Thursday, April 20, 2023.
Anton Gladun, 22, lies on his bed at the Third City Hospital, in Cherkasy, Ukraine, on May 5, 2022. Gladun, a military medic deployed on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, lost both legs and his left arm in a mine explosion on March 27. Photographer Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press, was awarded a honourable mention in the Europe category of the World Press Photo Contest.
Camille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY's NOW team.
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