World Press Photo 2024, Mohammed Salem wins award for Photo of the Year

“Connecting the world to the stories that matter” is the theme of the World Press Photo Award 2024, which honors the best photojournalism images of the year. The 2024 winners were announced today, whose shots will be collected in the volume World Press Photo 2024, due out May 17 from Marsilio Arte. In 2024, 33 photographers were awarded for 32 photojournalistic features, selected by an independent international jury from 61062 entries submitted by 3851 photographers from 130 countries. The Photo of the Year 2024 is the shot A Palest inian Woman Embraces the Body of Her Niece by Palestinian photographer Mohammed Salem, a previous winner of the World Press Photo Award.

Salem describes this photo as a “powerful and sad moment that sums up the deepest sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip.” The image shows Inas Abu Maamar cradling the body of his only five-year-old niece Saly who was killed along with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile hit their home in Khan Younis, Gaza. The work was chosen by the jury for its care and respectful composition, a visual tale at once metaphorical and literal of unimaginable loss. The award for Story of the Year goes to Lee-Ann Olwage ’s work Valim-Babena made for GEO. In Madagascar, low public awareness of dementia often leads to the stigmatization of those who show symptoms of memory loss. The jury justified the choice by explaining that “this story addresses a universal health issue through the lens of family and caregiving. The selection of images is composed with warmth and tenderness, reminding viewers of the love and closeness needed in a time of war and aggression around the world.”

In contrast, the Long-Term Project award was given to The Two Walls, created by Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times/Bloomberg. As of 2019, Mexico’s immigration policies have undergone a significant shift from a country historically open to migrants and asylum seekers along the southern border to one that enforces strict immigration policies. Alejandro Cegarra, based on his direct experience of migrating from Venezuela to Mexico in 2017, initiated this project in 2018. The jury recognized that his position as a migrant provides a sensitive, humanity-centered perspective focused on the autonomy and resilience of migrants.

The World Press Photo Open Format award was won by Ukrainian photographer Julia Kochetova for War is Personal, a work that blends photography with poetry and music, created in collaboration with a Ukrainian illustrator and DJ. Amid tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties and a stalemate that has persisted for months, there are no signs of peace for the war. As the media provide updates to the public through statistics and maps, and international attention shifts elsewhere, the photographer has created a site that combines photojournalism with a personal documentary style in the form of a diary. The aim is to show the world what it means to experience war in daily life.

“All of the winning images have the ability to convey a specific moment, but also to resonate beyond their subject and time, and that’s what we hoped to find,” said Fiona Shields, head of photography at The Guardian and chair of the global jury for the World Press Photo Contest 2024. “The Photo of the Year encapsulates just that sense of impact: it’s incredibly moving when you look at it and, at the same time, it makes people discuss peace, which is extremely powerful at a time when peace can sometimes seem like just an unlikely fantasy.”

World Press Photo 2024, Mohammed Salem wins award for Photo of the Year

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