It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words. However the top photos which have been picked for World Press Photo awards say more than a thousand words.
From the horrors of gang violence and conflict to the wondrous sight of some of nature’s most stunning sights, these photos are some of the most iconic photos clicked over the last year.
Check them out right here:
Contemporary issues, singles.
Contemporary issue, stories.
The tribesmen of the Munduruku, who for centuries have sanctified the Tapajos River on which their villages sit, are fighting for survival. Brazil’s government plans to flood much of their land to build a $9.9 billion hydroelectric dam, the Sao Luiz do Tapajos, as part of a wider energy strategy across the Amazon rain forest.
Daily life, stories.
Chilean, Chinese and Russian research teams in Antartica seek to explore commercial opportunities that will arise once the treaties protecting the continent for scientific purposes expire.
General news, singles.
General News, stories.
Long Term Projects
US Army Spc. Natasha Schuette, 21, was pressured not to report being assaulted by her drill sergeant during basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Though she was hazed by her assailant’s fellow drill instructors, she refused to back down and Staff Sgt. Louis Corral is now serving four years in prison for assaulting her and four other female trainees. The US Army rewarded Natasha for her courage to report her assault and the Sexual Harassment/ Assault Response & Prevention office distributed a training video featuring her story. She is now stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Series portraying women who have been raped or sexually assaulted during their service with the US Armed Forces. At the moment, only one out of ten reported sexual violence cases goes to trial and most military rape survivors are forced out of service. Victims suffer from the effects of Military Sexual Trauma, (MST), which include depression, substance abuse, paranoia and feelings of isolation.
A daughter photographs her own parents who were in parallel treatment for stage-four cancer, side by side.
The project looks at love, life, and living, in the face of death. It honors their memory by focusing on their strength and love, both individually and together, and shares the story of their final chapters, within a year of each other.
North Korea has been one of the most isolated and least understood countries. Few outsiders have ever had a glimpse of the country and there have been very few independent photographs ever made there. This series documents urban and rural North Korea, capturing the daily life of its citizens, military events and ceremonies.
Nature, singles.
Nature, stories.
A view of the largest herd of elephants in Zakouma National Park. Severe poaching over the last decade saw the number of elephants decreasing. Since management of the park changed, security of elephants has been improved.
People, single.
People, stories.
“My mother said that it was a typically quiet day, warm and windy. She and my father opened the window and they felt completely safe on the day of the explosion, the 26th of April 1986.”
The world’s worst nuclear accident happened on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Just 5 months after the disaster, a girl was born in Kiev just 100 km south from Chernobyl. The wind included a great amount of radioactive elements, and the girl became one of the victims of the tragedy. This series of pictures represent the last 30 years of the life of that invisible girl. All pictures taken on old Ukrainian color negative films, which were found in the city of Pripyat, located 5 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Young girls between the age of 7 and 11 are chosen every year as ‘Maya’ for the ‘Las Mayas’, a festival derived from pagan rites celebrating the arrival of spring, in the town of Colmenar Viejo, Spain. The girls are required to sit still for a couple of hours in a decorated altar.
Sports, singles.
During the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 2015 Mens Basketball Tournament game with Wichita State vs. Indiana, Ron Baker shoots over Nick Zeisloft whilst Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Rashard Kelly battle for position at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Sports, stories.
Kherou, a young wrestling champion, performs a ritual in the water of the sea while pouring milk over his body in order to obtain the reinforcement of a ghost who lives in the stones at the shore.
Erison Turây puts on his football outfit in his house in the city of Kenema, Sierra Leone. Turay founded the Ebola Survivors Football Club to support survivors, after 38 members of his family had died.
Spot News, single.
Spot News, stories.
Smoke rises from a building following reported shelling by Syrian government forces in Douma, Syria.
Douma, a rebel-held city in a suburb of the capital Damascus, lies in the opposition bastion area of Eastern Ghouta and has been subject to massive regime aerial bombardment. The area has also been under a crippling government siege for nearly two years as part of a regime attempt to break the rebel’s hold in the region. Douma and small rural towns in the Eastern Ghouta area were recorded as suffering from the highest number of fatalities since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. Government planes regularly bomb Douma and other small towns in Ghouta, which is an agricultural belt around the capital, leaving a constant trail of destruction and loss of lives.
At the end of September 2015, Russia launched air strikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The thunderous shelling in and around and the city has forced civilians from the town to join the growing number of more than four million Syrians fleeing the country since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.
