CaptionWomen shout their dissent from a Tehran rooftop on 24 June, following Iran's disputed presidential election. The result had been a victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, but there were allegations of vote-rigging. In the ensuing weeks, violent demonstrations took place in the streets. At night, people shouted from the roofs, an echo of protests that took place during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Organization / PublicationVII Mentor Program for The New York Times
CategorySpot News
Prize1st prize
Date15-12-2009
CountryAfghanistan
PlaceKabul
CaptionA woman is rushed from the scene of a suicide car bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan on 15 December. The bomb exploded near a hotel in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, home to many embassies and Western aid groups and one of the most heavily guarded areas of the city. At least eight people were killed and around 40 injured in the blast.
CaptionWhite phosphorus bombs explode over Gaza City on 8 January during Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. 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.
CaptionLance Corporal Joshua Bernard is tended to by fellow US Marines after being fatally wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade during a Taliban ambush in the village of Dahaneh, in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 14 August. Bernard's father objected that publication of the photo dishonored his son's memory. Others countered that this was a scene rarely shown to the US public.
CaptionA car crashes through a crowd watching a royal parade in the Dutch town of Apeldoorn, on Queen's Day, the official celebration of the monarch's birthday on 30 April. The car then crashed into a monument, just meters from an open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and members of her family. Eight people, including the driver of the car, died as a result of injuries sustained during the incident, and ten others were hurt. The royal family was unharmed.
CaptionA man tries to flee gunfire outside Madagascan government offices on 7 February. Violence broke out in the Madagascan capital, Antananarivo in February. Supporters of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina marched on government offices in a bid to oust President Marc Ravalomanana. Security forces opened fire, killing some 28 people. In the ensuing weeks, rioting broke out. In March, Ravalomanana was deposed and Rajoelina declared president.
CaptionAn opposition supporter shouts slogans in Tehran on 13 June. Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets of Tehran in June, disputing the result of the country's presidential election. At times, rioting broke out. Government security forces cracked down hard on the demonstrators and, by 22 June, 457 people had been arrested and at least eight reported dead.
CaptionA boy queues with other Palestinians for bread in Gaza City on 11 January. At the end of December 2008, Israel launched an offensive on Gaza that lasted for three weeks. Palestinian sources said that 1,409 people had been killed, of which 916 were civilian; Israeli sources registered 1,166 dead, of which 295 were civilian and 162 'unknown'. Israeli fatalities numbered 13.
CaptionGaza Photo Album. Light enters through a hole in the roof of a house hit by a tank shell in Tuffah, northern Gaza. The family that lived in the house had fled during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli attack on Gaza that began at the end of December 2008. Mohammed Shuhada Ali Ahmed, 39, had gone back to fetch clothes for his children and was killed when the shell struck.
CaptionA youth lies dead in a pool of blood in Medellín, Colombia on 27 September. President Álvaro Uribe has moved successfully against drug cartels in recent years, but, as international traffickers left Medellín, their place has been taken by gangs fighting for control of the local drug trade. Violent deaths in the city doubled in 2009, often related to clashes between drug gangs, but sometimes involving innocent bystanders.
CaptionA Jewish man throws wine at a Palestinian woman before a Purim parade in the West Bank city of Hebron on 10 March. Purim is an annual Jewish festival with celebrations that include feasting and drinking. Hebron is divided into two zones. In one, under Israeli security control, several hundred Jewish residents live among tens of thousands of Palestinians. Tension between the communities is expressed in acts of harassment and provocation from both sides.
CaptionGuinea-Bissau, one of the poorest nations in the world, has become a hub for cocaine trafficking as South American drug cartels seek new smuggling routes to Europe. With over 100 islands off its coast and a navy with no working boats, Guinea-Bissau offers a haven for drop-offs, storage and movement of cocaine. Leading officials are involved, as was assassinated president João Bernardo Vieira, according to Interpol.
CaptionMohamed Abukar Ibrahim, 48, is stoned to death by members of Hizbul Islam, a group of Somali Islamist insurgents in Afgoye, 30 km from the capital Mogadishu, on 13 December. Ibrahim had been found guilty of adultery by a local Sharia court. In February, the president of a transitional government had agreed to the introduction of Sharia law in Somalia, in order to defuse clashes between the government and local clan-based militia.
CaptionGaza - Landscape of Destruction. A boy walks through the entrance of the house where his family once lived in the Hai al-Salam neighborhood of East Jabaliya, Gaza on 25 January. The Israeli military campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza came to an end on 18 January, after 22 days. Israel completed its withdrawal by 21 January, but did not lift its siege on the Gaza Strip. Intense bombardment had left thousands of homes destroyed and tens of thousands of people displaced.
CaptionA man cradles a stone during a pro-separatist demonstration in Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir, on 23 January. Kashmir, which is over 60 percent Muslim, has been disputed by India and Pakistan since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and is currently split between them. Since 1989, there has been a growing Muslim separatist movement against Indian control. Pro-separatist rallies in India-administered Kashmir are common.
CaptionUS soldiers take defensive positions after receiving fire from the Taliban in Korengal Valley, Afghanistan on 11 May. Specialist Zachery Boyd was wearing 'I Love NY' boxer shorts when he rushed from his bunker to support fellow platoon members.
CaptionJennifer Wood finds most of her street reduced to ruins on returning to the town of Narbethong, northeast of Melbourne, Australia on 8 February. Bushfires had raged in the area on 'Black Saturday', the day before, in what became Australia's worst ever natural disaster, claiming 173 lives, destroying over 2,000 homes and wiping out native fauna and farm stock.
CaptionA man stands on a Tehran roof on 26 June. Following the disputed result of the Iranian presidential election, supporters of the losing candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi began to climb to their rooftops in the evenings and shout expressions of their discontent. As the streets emptied and went quiet after daytime demonstrations, cries of 'Allahu akbar!' and 'Death to the dictator!' filled the night air.
Organization / PublicationGetty Images for Newsweek
CategoryPeople in the News stories
Prize2nd prize
Date20-01-2009
CountryUSA
PlaceWashington D.C.
CaptionIn their last moments in the White House, President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, together with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynn, await the arrival of Barack Obama on Inauguration Day. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States at the West Front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on 20 January. Obama was the first African-American in the country's history to hold the office.
CaptionStarving villagers reduce a fallen elephant to bones in just over two hours in the Gonarezhou National Park, a remote part of Zimbabwe. A day later, even the bones are gone. They strip the carcass with their bare hands or with knives fashioned from old tin. In Zimbabwe, years of hyper-inflation, acute shortages of basic supplies and a series of very poor harvests up to early 2009 has led to widespread hunger.
CaptionA ball thrown by Australian Simon Katich sends the bails flying, dismissing England batsman Jonathan Trott during the fifth Ashes cricket test match at The Oval cricket ground in London on 20 August. The Ashes, played every two years between England and Australia, is one of cricket's most celebrated rivalries and dates back to 1882. Over the years, 64 series have been played, with Australia winning 31 and England 28. The 2009 series was won by England.
CaptionJockey James Carroll looks back at the rest of the field after his horse Lord Time took a tumble during the opening race of the Punchestown Irish National Hunt Festival in County Kildare, Ireland on 28 April. The race is a particularly difficult steeplechase. Neither horse nor rider was injured.
CaptionSkateboarder Bob Burnquist attempts a maneuver during free practice for the MegaRamp event at Anhembi Park in São Paulo, Brazil. The MegaRamp was developed in the USA and has twice been brought to São Paulo by Burnquist, who is also champion of the event. Measuring 27 meters high, the ramp represents an extreme form of skateboarding, tackled by very few athletes.
CaptionNearly 2,000 competitors enter Kailua Bay at sunrise to start the swim. The Hawaiian Ironman World Championships is a grueling annual triathlon comprising a 3.86 km swim, a 180.25 km bicycle race and a 42.195 km marathon with a strict 17-hour time limit. Competitors must endure scorching temperatures and crosswinds of up to 70 kph.
CaptionCompetitors take their positions for the start of the men's over 80s 200 meters. The World Masters Games, held every four years, is the world's largest multi-sport event, with mature competitors from across the globe taking part in 28 different sports. The 2009 games in Sydney attracted 28,292 participants, two of them over 100 years old.
CaptionThomas Löhr after pre-season training with the Stockholm Mean Machines. The Stockholm Mean Machines, founded in 1984, is Sweden's oldest American football team. All team members are unpaid amateurs, except for an American professional quarterback, Aries Nelson.
CaptionYankees fans try to distract an Angels left fielder at the Yankee Stadium on 25 October. The day saw victory for the Yankees, propelling the baseball team to the top of its division and on to the World Series. The Yankees went on to win the World Series, their 27th title.
CaptionA US Air Force stealth bomber conducts a fly-past during the national anthem as part of the opening ceremony of the 95th Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California on January 1. The annual Rose Bowl Game is the final of the oldest college football championships, dating back to 1902. Its home, the Rose Bowl Stadium, has a capacity of around 93,000.
CaptionTiger Woods flips clubs with his caddie Steve Williams during practice at the Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Arizona. It was Woods' first tournament after reconstructive surgery to his left knee.
CaptionLance Armstrong - Comeback 2.0. Armstrong on a training ride in Austin, Texas. American Lance Armstrong, 37, made his second comeback to professional cycling with the express intent of participating in the 2009 Tour de France. Armstrong won the world's most famous cycle race for a record-breaking seven consecutive years, from 1999 to 2005. He took part in the 2009 event, coming third overall.
CaptionSenegalese wrestling, or laamb, is a mix of conventional wrestling and bare-fist boxing. Champions become national heroes and can earn big money. Traditionally, laamb was a demonstration of a young man's skill and strength in order to attract a partner. Rituals surrounding the centuries-old sport are almost as important as the wrestling itself. Fighters wear talismans for good luck and their bodies are coated with potions to drive away evil.
CaptionFrance Residence: Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris. Bedding belonging to homeless people is set out to dry, on the Champs Elysées in Paris. Up to 30,000 people sleep on the streets in Paris - a hard core of over 10,000 habitual rough-sleepers, with the rest made up of people spending a night or two on the streets for more transitory reasons.
Organization / PublicationVII Network for Le Monde Magazine
CategoryContemporary Issues
Prize2nd prize
Date09-10-2009
CountryKenya
PlaceWajir
CaptionA giraffe killed by drought lies in a dry river bed in Wajir, northeastern Kenya in September. Wet-season rains in the region had failed completely for three years running. Many natural water sources had dried up and even the more resilient animals such as elephants and giraffes were dying, alongside those more susceptible to water-shortage. The drought also caused immense suffering among nomadic pastoralists in the area, as their herds were decimated.
CaptionLove Me. People worldwide experience pressure to conform to specific, often commercially created, ideals of beauty. Christopher, 22, examines his chest after a waxing treatment to remove hair in a New York beauty salon.
CaptionThe body of an alleged drug dealer lies covered by a sheet after being shot outside his home in Tijuana, on Mexico's northern border on 6 September. In a wave of violence following President Felipe Calderón's crackdown on drug cartels, decapitated and bullet-riddled bodies began to appear in Tijuana and other cities on drug transit routes. Many attributed this to reprisal killings of people believed to be informants.
Organization / PublicationReportage by Getty Images/The Sunday Times Magazine/Paris Match
CategoryContemporary Issues stories
Prize1st prize
Date19-03-2006
CountryUSA
PlaceRoslindale, Massachusetts
CaptionWar Is Personal. Carlos Arredondo's son Alexander, a lance-corporal with the US Marines was killed in combat in Najaf, Iraq, on Carlos's birthday. By the end of 2009, over 4,300 men and women from US military forces had been killed and some 30,000 maimed or wounded since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq. The incidence of stress-related illness and military suicides was increasing.
CaptionCasilino 900, on the eastern outskirts of Rome, was one of the largest Roma (gypsy) settlements in Europe. Over 600 Roma, largely from the former Yugoslavia, lived at Casilino 900 with no public sanitation or electrical supply. They were caught up in a national anti-immigrant backlash, despite a long-standing presence in Italy. Casilino 900 was demolished at the beginning of 2010.
CaptionSlaughterhouses in Umbria, Italy. Neatly packaged meat in supermarkets is often completely detached in consumers' minds from the process of its production.
CaptionThe photographer does pushups at a place of topical significance. The Moment: The Case of the Burning CCTV Building. On 9 February, fire raged through the studios of China Central Television shortly before the new building was opened. The blaze had been started by huge fireworks, set off without the requisite government permission, by a squad allegedly hired illegally by CCTV officials.
CaptionA family enjoys a picnic on a beach outside Maputo, in Mozambique. According to the World Bank, the number of people that can be classified as belonging to the middle classes in developing countries is on the rise and will have reached one billion by 2030.
CaptionMary, a single mother, lives with her son in downtown Detroit. Her family lives out of town and visits her rarely because they are afraid of problems with crime. Detroit tops the list of America's most dangerous cities, with 1,220 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Crime is particularly prevalent in downtown areas. Since the 1960s, there has been a steady exodus of those who can afford it to the suburbs.
CaptionFinding Their Way. Pandu Fayre sits in the evening light after finishing dinner with his parents in Englewood, Colorado. Blind from birth, Pandu Fayre, 6, was living in an orphanage in India when he was adopted by Americans Jason and Lalena Fayre in November 2008. Jason is himself visually impaired and wanted to pass on the skills that he had learned in coping with everyday life to his adopted son.
CaptionThe Jensen brothers hunt birds outside the Glacier National Park in Hungry Horse, Montana. Hungry Horse, in the Rocky Mountains, Montana, USA, was a thriving settlement of construction workers for a nearby dam in the 1950s. Today, it has just 900 residents, struggling with unemployment. Many younger people join the army or head to the city in search of better prospects.
Organization / PublicationLisa Pritchard Agency for The Guardian Weekend magazine
CategoryPortraits
Prize1st prize
Date04-06-2009
CountryUnited Kingdom
PlaceLondon
CaptionGraham suffered from anorexia nervosa when he was 14, after becoming infatuated with a girl in his class and trying to lose weight to attract her. By the time he was 15, he weighed just over 30 kg, but after retraining himself to eat managed to double that weight over the next six years. Today, at 24, Graham sees himself as recovered although the illness still lurks in the back of his mind.
