World Press Photo 2013

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.




Photo by Wei Seng Chen - Joy at the end of the run


Photo by Nadav Kander - Daniel Kaluuya


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.


The most controversial winning photo by Paul Hansen - Gaza Burial


Photo by Rodrigo Abd - Aida


Photo by Majid Saeedi - Life in War






Photos by Bernat Armangue - Gaza


Photos by Esteban Felix - Pool Hall Attack


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.