World Press Photo apologized for combining a photo of a Ukrainian girl and an occupier, but the award for the photographer from Russia will remain
Kyiv • UNN
The World Press Photo jury apologized for combining a photo of a Ukrainian girl and an occupier, but the award for the photographer from Russia will remain. The organizers plan to improve the rules.
The World Press Photo jury apologized for combining a photo of a Ukrainian girl and an occupier, but will leave the award to a photographer from the Russian media, according to a statement by the organizers of the competition in response to a request from Detector Media, UNN writes.
Details
The international jury and World Press Photo, as stated in their response, apologized for combining two works - Nanna Heitmann's "Underground Field Hospital" and Florian Bachmeier's "On the Other Side of the Trenches" - into one visual pair.
We should not have presented these two photographs as a pair, as this implies that they should be viewed and understood only in dialogue with each other. This creates an oversimplified and false equivalence and overshadows the story that each unfolds on its own. These stories, meanwhile, point to only two aspects of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.
Regarding the award received by Mikhail Tereshchenko, a photographer for the Russian news agency TASS, the organizers said that they would not cancel the award, but would continue to improve the rules and procedures for working with applications from photographers working for state institutions. At the same time, they will consult with photographers working in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, as well as with photographers working in countries with repressive regimes who often try to do "a good job in their own difficult situations".
Addition
On March 27, the international organization World Press Photo announced the 42 regional winners of the annual documentary photography competition.
Among the winners were also representatives of Russia and Belarus, as well as two German photographers whose work deals with the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
One of the award-winning shots was a portrait of a Ukrainian child who survived severe injuries as a result of the war.
Another award-winning shot shows a wounded occupier from the "DPR" in a field hospital near Bakhmut.
This choice of the jury has drawn criticism.