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

[Mr.Atos]

How many butchered here, never got to hold their children again because of the actions of this animal and his friends... and his son... with the defense and support of Leftists like, Mr. Bouju.

Atos

[BossLady]

I completely agree with your assessment! My main problem with the photo is the fuzzy barbed wire going through the middle of the picture. I would have gotten an 'F' in photojournalism class if I would have brought this to my professor......

[Iscool]

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.

Unlikely he's being held for anything since I doubt his son we be arrested also...Probably on the ouside looking in at some of his terrorist relatives...

[plastic_positive]

well, I happen to think it is. It shows several key things.

1: the horror of war, dividing families and such.
2: the compassion of the US, allowing this man to care for his child, despite his POW status.

The velvet glove of the US military, seems to be a pretty darn good story for 2003, don't you think?

[dougherty]

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

Ditto.

[CougarGA7]

I thought the guy in the picture was familar and then I realized....it's MEGALON! Here he is meeting with a delegate from Japan several years ago.

[Yardstick]

The men have to have their heads covered when there are photographers there according to the Geneva Convention.

My guess is that the photographer and the selection committee would prefer that the viewers of the photo be ignorant of this little fact.

[Mr. Bird]

It's not a great picture. It's an interesting picture, most certainly. If the date is 3/31/03, that means we were still right in the middle of a march to Baghdad (about a week and half along in the war). It would be the height of dishonesty to say the picture evokes images of American brutality; it clearly demonstrates the opposite. In the middle of a shooting war in which our enemies could blend with our allies, we still allowed detainees the dignity of remaining with their families.

[Hildy]

Why not the picture of the Palestinian child with a bomb around his waist...why not that one?

[dead]

The photo is touching because the knight appears to have grown all his limbs back.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

That was better than the picture. 10,000 for you!

[Prodigal Son]

That happened in 2001. Why would it be entered in a contest for 2003 photos?

[Carolinamom]

RE #24. Well said.

[Dead Dog]

I should have checked first, if you determine this pic offensive, please remove it and I will post a link.

[geedee]

Liberals rewarding liberals? I'm shocked.

Wait until you see who wins all the Academy Awards. You heard it here first . . . the Hollyweird whores want to prove they're the only enlightened species in the Northern Hemisphere so Sean Penn and all the other blame-America-first-second-and-always'ers will win. It'll have nothing to do with their performances. Hell, Sean Penn's acting abilities haven't changed since Fast Times at Ridgemont High . . . only his voice. He's still a punk . . . just a wealthier one now.

But they'll fawn all over him like he's Sir Sean Poitier.

[Mr.Atos]

The discomfort of that picture, transcends it's graphic content. One should always remember the first victims of communism and liberalism. When your holding yours tonight, remember this picture, the and the horrors that can be avoided by not letting the likes of Kerry anywhere near leadership again.

Keep the picture.

Atos

[Alouette]

How do we know this is not another phony, staged photo-op like this one:

Sat Feb 7, 9:51 AM ET
Photographers take pictures of a Palestinian woman as she cries next to the 8-meter-tall wall part of the barrier Israel is building to separate the outskirts of Jerusalem from the West Bank in the village of Abu Dis Saturday Feb. 7, 2004. Around a thousand Israeli and Palestinians rallied against the controversial security barrier that is meant, according to Israel, to keep suicide bombers out. Others condemn the barrier, which dips deep into the West Bank in some areas, as a land grab. (AP Photo/Enric Marti)

[GraniteStateConservative]

We're running out of places we know to look, so his hat might be next.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I don't know what the hat is all about.