World Press Photo visits Brisbane for the sixth year running at the
Brisbane Powerhouse. The exhibition draws talent from professional press photographers, photo-journalists and documentary photographers from around the world. Some of this year's award winning images are strong examples of work by photographers who have taken courageous positions that challenge the simplistic orthodoxy of the mainstream.
Journalism was indeed the word of the day. One shot can capture the heart of a moment. Current issues, social problems and expressions of simple, primal human emotions are being revealed. Through photojournalism, we see the world, we see the truth.
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Photo by
Wei Seng Chen - Joy at the end of the run
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Photo by N
adav Kander - Daniel Kaluuya
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Photo by
Daniel Ochoa de Olza - Bullfighter's Comeback
Room draped in black cloth, is set apart for particularly traumatising photos, viewers 15+ only. In there pictures of the slain and mutilated, of widows, of parents burying their children, buildings reduced to ashes. I believe everyone who entered the room, for a moment at least, felt the pain and agony those images wanted to portray, the injustice and the despair of war and broken lives.
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The most controversial winning photo by
Paul Hansen - Gaza Burial
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Photo by
Rodrigo Abd - Aida
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Photo by
Majid Saeedi - Life in War
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Photos by
Bernat Armangue - Gaza
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Photos by
Esteban Felix - Pool Hall Attack
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Photos by
Frederik Buyckx - Pacified Favela
Looking at all the winning images of this year's WPP, it made me wonder. What does it say about what is actually happening in the world? And more specifically, our way of looking at the world and what we think is important to report and reward.
2012, the year that these awards honour, has also been a tragic year for the profession, in loss of life. 89 professional journalists were targeted and killed with an additional 48 citizen journalists adding to the terrible toll that is the highest in the last decade.