Palestinian photojournalist Samar Abu Elouf has gained 2025’s World Press Photo award for her picture of a Gazan boy whose arms have been mutilated by an Israeli airstrike.
Abu Elouf took the picture of Mahmoud Ajjour, then aged 9, for The New York Instances. On the award ceremony in Amsterdam on Wednesday, she stated that the picture makes her consider her personal 4 youngsters. “Once I see Mahmoud, I consider him as if he was my very own son,” she stated.
Like her topic, Abu Elouf is from Gaza. She was evacuated from the territory and now resides in the identical Doha condominium advanced in Qatar the place Mahmoud lives along with his household. “I used to see him trying on the youngsters taking part in, and I used to really feel his ache,” she stated.
After Ajjour agreed to have his picture taken, Abu Elouf requested his mom to contact her when the solar was shining into their condominium. The way in which during which the boy’s head and shoulders are illuminated by the sunshine gives the look of a classical bust.
“It is a quiet picture that speaks loudly,” Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photograph’s director, stated on the ceremony. “It tells the story of 1 boy, but additionally of a wider struggle that may have an effect for generations.”
Abu Elouf has documented the lives of a number of wounded Gazans who have been handled outdoors of Palestine.
A complete of 59,320 photographs have been entered for this 12 months’s World Press Photograph award, which is now in its seventieth 12 months. Nearly 4,000 photographers from 141 international locations put photos ahead. Choosing the profitable picture was due to this fact no straightforward process for the judges. “When the worldwide jury received right down to deciding on the totally different contenders for the [award] we began with a big selection from every of the six areas,” Lucy Conticello, the worldwide jury chair, stated in a press release. “Three subjects emerged from that pool that outline the 2025 World Press Photograph version: battle, migration, and local weather change. One other method of seeing them is as tales of resilience, household, and neighborhood.”
Abu Elouf’s triumph emphasizes the coverage of Khoury to encourage photojournalists whose work is rooted of their neighborhood, versus Westerner photographers who quickly enter battle zones, for instance, earlier than leaving just a few hours or days later.
“Once I [started my job five years ago], I assumed, how can we name ourselves the World Press Photograph when most of our winners have come from Europe and the US, they usually’re white males,” Khoury stated on the award ceremony. One change she made is dividing the world into six areas, with photographers getting into by the area the place their picture was taken. Within the 12 months after this transformation, 80 % of candidates who progressed to the ultimate spherical have been native to their story. “I’m pleased with that,” Khoury says.
Two finalists have been chosen as runners up alongside the picture of the 12 months: John Extra’s Evening Crossing for Getty Photographs and Droughts within the Amazon by Musuk Nolte for Panos Photos, Bertha Basis.
