Palestinian photographer wins second World Press Photo for haunting image from Gaza

Palestinian photographer Mohammed Salem has won this year’s prestigious World Press Photo for his news photograph of Inas Abu Maamar as she clutched the body of her five-year-old niece, Saly. The photograph of the 36-year-old woman was taken on October 17 after an Israeli strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which is located in the southern region of the Gaza Strip.

“The photographer describes this photo, taken just days after his own wife gave birth, as a ’powerful and sad moment that sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,’” World Press Photo said, quoting the photographer, on Thursday.

“The jury commented on how the image was composed with care and respect, offering at once a metaphorical and literal glimpse into unimaginable loss.”

Salem won the prize for his work with Reuters. He also won the award for the photo he took on behalf of the news agency in Gaza City on January 8, 2009. That photo showed white phosphorous bombs exploding over the city as Israel carried out an offensive attack against Hamas.

“White phosphorous sticks to human skin and will burn through to the bone. It is legal for use in laying smokescreens on open battleground, but its use in built-up areas is banned under international conventions,” World Press Photo noted in their 2010 presentation.

South African photographer Lee-Ann Olwage was awarded the Story of the Year award for a photo she took in Madagascar. The image depicts a man with dementia named Dada Paul, and his granddaughter, Odliatemix, as they get ready for church. The man has lived with dementia for over a decade in a country which stigmatizes issues like memory loss, World Press Photo said.

Alejandro Cegarra won the Long-Term Project Award for his multi-year coverage of immigration and asylum issues at Mexico’s southern border. The Venzuelan photographer migrated to Mexico in 2017, and began his project a year later.

The Open Format prize was given to Ukrainian photographer Julia Kochetova. She produced a mixed-media project to provide a more personal and contextual overview of the Russian war in her country.

The four awards were selected from a shortlist of 24 photographers who won regional prizes out of over 61,000 entries. The World Press Photo exhibition opens in De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on Friday