Reuters photographer took ‘Photo of the Year’

PARIS – Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won the prestigious “Photo of the Year” award on Thursday for his portrait of loss and pain in Gaza, a heartbreaking image of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of his young niece.

The photo, taken in Khan Yunis a few days after the birth of Mr. Salem’s child, shows Enas Abu Muammar, 36, holding Sally, 5, who was killed along with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile hit their home.

Salem, a Palestinian, described the photo taken on November 2 last year as “a powerful and sad moment that sums up the general feeling of what was happening in the Gaza Strip.”

World Press Photo’s global judging panel, Fiona Shields, head of photography at The Guardian, said the image “really encapsulates that sense of impact”.

She added: “It is incredibly moving and at the same time a call for peace, which is very powerful when peace sometimes seems like an improbable fantasy.”

The jury praised the feeling of care and respect that emanates from the image and the fact that it offers “a figurative and literal view of unimaginable loss.”

This is not the first time Mr. Salem has been honored for his work in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He won the World Press Photo Award more than a decade ago for another photo depicting the human toll caused by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

In the other three global categories announced on Thursday, South Africa’s Lee-Anne Oluag won Picture of the Year for her animated series “Valim-babena” published by GEO magazine. The project focused on the stigma associated with dementia in Madagascar, a topic she explored through intimate portraits of Dada Paul and his family. A lack of public awareness of dementia means that people with symptoms of memory loss are often stigmatized.

In the series, Dada Paul, who has lived with dementia for 11 years, is lovingly cared for by his daughter Fara. One of the most striking images in the series shows him preparing to go to church with his granddaughter, Odiliatimex, capturing moments of normalcy and warmth amid the challenges of dementia.

Photographer Alejandro Segarra, originally from Venezuela and immigrated to Mexico in 2017, won the Long-Term Project Award for “The Two Walls,” published by The New York Times and Bloomberg. The Cigarra Project, launched in 2018, examines the shift in Mexico’s immigration policies from historical openness to strict rules on its southern border. The jury said the photographer’s perspective as an immigrant gave him a “sensitive” and human-centered perspective, according to a press release.

Ukrainian Julia Kochetova won the open award for the film “War is Personal.” The project rose to prominence by covering the ongoing conflict by offering a personal look at the harsh realities of war. Through a dedicated website, she combines traditional photojournalism with a documentary style in the form of a diary, which includes photographs, poetry, audio clips and music.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in the Netherlands, founded in 1955.