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The World Press Photo Awards is a contest open to professional
photographers, newspapers, magazines and photo agencies all over the
world. The single criterion is that the judges look at all the
submissions and choose the best of the year in 10 categories: spot
news, people in the news, sports action, sports features, contemporary
issues, daily life, nature, art and entertainment and portraits. There
are awards in each group for single photos and photos put together to
make what World Press calls stories. The jury's mandate is to give the
awards based on the news value of a photograph and the
photojournalist's creative skills.
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Young Lebanese drive through a South Beirut neighborhood
devastated by Israeli bombs.
© Spencer Platt, USA/Getty Images. World Press Photo of the Year
2006.
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There were 78,083 images entered in the contest. The jury had to
choose the best of those pictures submitted by 4,460 photographers
from 124 countries with a substantial, inexplicable increase of
entries from Central and South America. That made for a formidable
number of images for the jury to look at and then decide on a grand
prizewinner along with winners in each of the categories. The awards
went to 58 photographers from 23 countries. This wide-ranging contest
potentially covers everything that a photojournalist sees through the
lens of his or her camera. That is why it is important.
For more details, go to
http://www.worldpressphoto.com and follow the prompts to view all
winners in all categories.
The World Press Photo of the Year Award for 2006 went to Spencer
Platt, an American with the Getty Images photo agency. His picture,
taken on August 15, 2006, shows a group of young Lebanese driving
through a partially destroyed neighborhood in Beirut after a recent
bombing by Israel and immediately after the cease-fire between Israel
and Hezbollah. Jury chair Michele McNally of The New York Times wanted
the jury to look for a definitive image that told a historical,
psychological and esthetic story. She says, "Spencer Platt's picture
does all that. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious."
Platt will receive a prize of almost $20,000.
An exhibit of all the photos will open in Amsterdam at the end of
April. It will then travel to 85 different places so people everywhere
can get a look at the prizewinners.
I recall seeing a few of these photos during the year, but with so
much information demanding my attention, the impression they left was
fleeting. There is nothing better than seeing some of them again in
one place and then realizing how many I have not seen until now. These
photographs give us an idea of how photojournalists around the world
see the world in which they live, in many cases, a world we here in
America do not normally see. Not all the photos are of the same
quality. Nor will these in our portfolio satisfy everyone who views
them. But they are worth a look, so here are some of the winning
photos in most of the categories as defined by World Press Photos.
View the World Press Photo Awards photo gallery.
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At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
