French photographer wins World Press Photo < Gotta See This>

Reuters ^ | 13 February 2004 | Reuters

[Helms]

French photographer wins World Press Photo

13 February 2004

AMSTERDAM — French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju was named on Friday as the winner of the World Press Photo competition.

The international jury of the 47th annual World Press Photo, which is run from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, chose a colour image from Bouju that shows an Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a Prisoner of War centre near Najaf, Iraq.

The picture was taken on 31 March 2003 and can be viewed at http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.jsp.

Some 4,176 professional photographers from 124 countries participated in this year’s contest, the premier annual international competition in press photography. More than 63,000 images were entered.

The organisers said 81 percent of the photographs entered, including Bouju's winning photo, were taken with a digital camera. The number of digital camera pictures submitted to the contest this year was the highest ever.

Bouju will receive his award and a cash prize of EUR 10,000 at an awards ceremony in the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on Sunday 25 April 2004.

The ceremony will be preceded by a three-day program of lectures, discussions and screenings of photography. Two exhibitions will be shown in the Oude Kerk: the annual award-winning pictures and a special selection of Bouju's work.

The exhibitions are open to the public from 26 April through to 20 June and will subsequently visit more than 80 locations around the world.

Bouju works for the Associated Press news agency. He shared the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography with three photojournalists with the Associated Press. The team was awarded the prize for its coverage of the devastating ethnic violence in Rwanda.

Bouju's 1995 entry was a photograph of refugee children pleading to be allowed to cross a bridge from Rwanda to Zaire.

He also shared the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography with John McConnico, a former UT Department of Journalism student in Texas, and four other photographers.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch and French news

[Helms]

[new cruelty]

It is a touching picture... the one with the father and son is also interesting.

[mountaineer]

He's probably hiding WMDs in that hat.

[Ken522]

Forget the Coneheads for a second - what's the Palestinian got on his head, or wrapped around his head?

[Howie66]

After taking the picture, the photographer promptly surrendered to the son.

[Aggie Mama]

My favorite is Cigar Man resting in one of Saddam's palaces.

[Timesink]

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[dangus]

*chuckle* He is from France.

[Aggie Mama]

I wonder what the picture was in 2001? Somehow I don't think it revolved around 9/11.

[Paradox]

That is a sad picture. I feel sorry for that boy, and for the man, as a father. However, I dont know what he is being held for, so I dont neccessarily feel sorry for the guy in general.

[prion]

Awww...isn't it nice of the Americans to let prisoners of war have access to their children to comfort them? Wait...that's not what I was supposed to take away from this picture?

[dangus]

Actually, what's amazing about it is that it is a strikingly bad photo. I'm sure the fascist World Press Corp loves it because it elicits sympathy for terrorists, but you can't see the father's face at all, and the child's face is alrgely darkened, and not terribly emotive either. You have no idea what the hood is about, nor can you tell much about the context.

[TheBigB]

Compare and contrast.

[Right_Handed_Writer]

The only thing a frenchman can shoot is a camera!

[Alberta's Child]

Someone posted a story the other day about that 15 year-old Afghan kid who was just released from Guantanamo Bay after being held there as an "enemy combatant" for the last year and a half. He was hardly recognizable to his family back in Afghanistan, since he's about six inches taller than when he arrived at Gitmo, has a physique that looks like an NFL linebacker compared to a typical Afghan, and now speaks pretty good English. LOL.

[Tamzee]

What's "interesting" is that the fact this man's head is covered injects a great amount of the emotional content. The men have to have their heads covered when there are photographers there according to the Geneva Convention. It's the PHOTOGRAPHER who is causing that man's head to be covered... if the press left the scene it would no longer be necessary. The press are PART of the scene there...

[Wright is right!]

"Actually, what's amazing about it is that it is a strikingly bad photo."

That was my first thought. In fact, I couldn't even tell what it was a photo OF. It just looked like some shrouded figure sitting on the ground behind - or in front of - some barbed wire. It took the caption to tell me what the picture was all about. VERY bad photo.

Michael

[Tricorn]

Looks like he's holding the kid hostage. Let me go or the kid gets it!

[texasflower]

The man is an Iraqi. The first or second sentence describes him as an Iraqi man comforting his 4 year old son.

The thing on his head is the bag that they have been putting on detainees that prevents them from causing problems. They can't see to run away or to fight the soldiers.

[Lancey Howard]

"Now, poot your hand on zee child's head. That's eet.... No, up a leetle.... a leetle more.... that's eet. Bow your head a leetle.... Goooood.... Sacre bleu! - - Make zee child stop giggling! That's eet..... Purrrrr-fect!" (click)