Ukrainian photographer Maloletka wins prestigious award for Siege of Mariupol photos
Just 24 winners were selected from 60,488 photos by 3,752 photographers in 127 countries.
Maloletka was recognized for his photos of the siege of Mariupol. At that time, he spent 20 days in the city as part of a team cooperating with the Associated Press. They were the only journalists working with foreign media in the city besieged by the Russian invaders.
Maloletka’s award-winning photos splashed the front pages of world media in March 2022 and include the consequences of the Russian airstrike of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, mass burials, enemy tanks on the city’s streets, the work of Mariupol doctors, and the moment a Russian shell hit a high-rise building.
“This story depicts the reality of Russian attacks on Mariupol in a direct way, without indulging in tragedy and other visual possibilities,” the jury said in a comment.
“The story is full of rare and historic images from different angles at a ground level, packaged and edited flawlessly to communicate the civilian toll of war. Each image left a mark on the jury. They were struck by how the Ukrainian photographer risked his life to access visuals of Russian combatants and make these images available to the world. This story will rise as a collection of haunting iconic images of the ongoing war.”
Along with Maloletka’s photos, the jury also awarded two more photographers covering the war in Ukraine.
One of the photos titled “Yana and Viktor” was taken by Greek photographer Alkis Konstantinidis working for Reuters. The photo shows a woman crying over the body of her father, killed while buying bread during the shelling of Kharkiv, and her mother and husband trying to calm her down.
Italian photographer Emilio Morenatti, who works with the Associated Press, was awarded for the series of photos titled “War Wounds,” which portray people who have undergone amputations as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
World Press Photo is an international contest for professional photojournalism and/or documentary photographers.
Every year, the jury announces the best journalistic and documentary photos over the past year. The first winners of the contest were awarded back in 1955.
Read also: Ukrainian Yevhen Maloletka becomes Guardian’s photographer of 2022
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
