SPANISH PHOTOGRAPHER SAMUEL ARANDA WINS WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2011

One of my passions is photography and I am always very interested in reading everything about this topic. Today I have read that the World Press Photo of the Year revealed the name of the winners of the year 2011. I have always thought photojournalism is a very hard and risky job because they have to be always at the center of the action and that is why I think these awards are very meritorious and I admire these people so much, they are really so brave!

And this year a portrait of a veiled woman cradling a wounded relative in her arms, taken in Yemen by Spanish photographer (born in Catalonia in 1979) Samuel Aranda for The News York Times won the top World Press Photo prize and I thought this morning it would be worth it to post about it.

The photograph captured a moment in the conflict in Yemen, when demonstrators against outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh used a mosque in Sanaa as a field hospital to treat the wounded. But judges said it also spoke more broadly for the Arab Spring.

"The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on," Aidan Sullivan, chair of the jury. "We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East."

The winning photo has been compared by many in the network with the Pieta of Michelangelo.

The photojournalist, who is represented by Corbis, snapped the picture during an assignment for The New York Times. Aranda will officially receive the 55th annual award at a ceremony in Amsterdam in April and will also gain a €10,000 cash prize and Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera.

The award for his photography in Yemen marks the climax of a career that has worked for major national and international media: Efe, France Presse, Corbis, Getty ... And that has led him to dozens of places in the world, portraying the Neapolitan mafia or the transformation of Medellin, the dry Aral Sea or the Kashmir dispute. But above all, his work has focused on the Middle East, spending long periods in Israel and closely following the Arab riots in Egypt, Tunisia and finally Yemen.

He doesn't want to focus the interest for the award on himself, but to discuss the conflict in Yemen. That is his main concern.

Aranda’s work was singled out from among 101,254 submissions to the contest from 5,247 photographers from 124 countries around the world. Between 28 January and yesterday, 19 internationally recognised professionals were sifting through the entries to find the overall 2011 winner and winners across a variety of categories, such as general news, sport, people and portrait.

For anyone who wants to read more about these World Press Photo prize 2011 just click on the webpage link.

And I am also leaving some more photos of this photographer. And here is his website link: Samuel Aranda.

"I am not an artist, I just show what I see", he says



Samuel could not ever think of himself getting to the top of photojournalism

when what really fascinated him was the graffitis

and later on he started working in a photography shop,

which he left after some time to start the photojournalism adventure,

his brother German told to journalists today.


Sources:
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.eitb.com/
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/
http://www.elmundo.es/