unicef-photo of the year 2017€¦ · unicef-photo of the year 2017 first prize 2017 syria: the...

UNICEF-Photo of the Year 2017 First Prize 2017

Syria: The face of a tormented childhood

Zahra’s face. The face of a five-year-old Syrian girl in a refugee camp in Jordan. In 2015,

Zahra’s parents fled the war in Syria with her and seven other children. They have lived in a

tent ever since. Her father, who used to work as a taxi driver and farmer, is looking for work on

the fields of the Jordan Valley; his children have no chance of attending school. Zahra was far

from the first refugee child photographer Muhammed Muheisen, born in 1981 in Jerusalem,

had met. The humanitarian tragedies in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan are

something the renowned photographer, who had worked many years for AP, knows all too

well. But for him, Zahra’s face and her eyes, in particular, were symbolic for the fate of

hundreds of thousands of girls and boys: the quiet sadness of the most innocent victims of

war, displacement and exile. Having experienced an unspeakable amount of violence, these

children initially have nothing else to cope with it than helplessness and disbelief. The face of a

childhood lost forever.

Photographer: Muhammed Muheisen, Jordan (AP/dpa)

Second Prize 2017 Bangladesh: The exodus of the Rohingya

Although they had lived for generations in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the military junta’s 1982

Citizenship Act rendered them stateless. As a result, the Muslim Rohingya were excluded from

mostly Buddhist Myanmar’s official list of 135 ethnic groups; so most of their children have no

access to medical help and are not allowed to attend school. 300,000 Rohingya had already

fled to neighboring Bangladesh, when the exodus of another 600,000 Rohingya began in

August 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked several police posts. In the face of this

humanitarian crisis, the UN spoke of “ethnic cleansing”, “crimes against humanity” and

“genocide”. The photojournalist K.M. Asad was born in 1983 in Dhaka and works for several

international media. He captured this seemingly tranquil moment of a Rohingya refugee and

her child arriving on the beach of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Thousands have crossed the

border on foot or, such as the woman in the picture, by boat. With them they bring the

experience of mass killings and rape. Their villages and fields: burned. Their belongings:

destroyed. Their families: torn. Asad’s picture of mother and child who look like they were

ascending from the sea: an image of life and limb saved. It also shows, however, a

humanitarian disaster. Among its victims are approximately 320,000 children.

Photographer: K.M. Asad, Bangladesh (Zuma Press)

Third Prize 2017

Bangladesh: Nothing but utter despair

It was on September 20, 2017 when aid transports arrived at a Rohingya refugee camp near

the Bay of Bengal. Since the end of August, hundreds of thousands of people had arrived in

the camp in a few days, with little more than the clothes on their backs. Photographer Kevin

Frayer witnessed the moment when a weeping boy had pulled himself up onto the truck,

wrapped his arms around the leg of the man standing over the food, reached out and tried to

make eye contact with the man he hoped would help him. Frayer, born in 1993 in Canada,

worked many years for the Associated Press in the Middle East. Today, he lives in Beijing and

works for Getty Images. Although he is quite familiar with people in emergency situations, the

utter despair of this boy presented a magnitude of sadness to him that shocked him more than

anything else he had seen. Countless Rohingya men fell victim to the violence in Myanmar;

therefore it was mostly women and children, among them thousands of unaccompanied

minors, who fled to Bangladesh. They live in makeshift dwellings made from bamboo or plastic

on muddy ground, rife with diseases and malnutrition, and under conditions where human lives

are reduced to – literally – bare survival.

Photographer: Kevin Frayer, Canada (Getty Images)

Honorable Mention 2017

Russia: Peaceful coexistence

“You don’t work, you’re only looking after the baby.” Originally not more than the thoughtless

statement by a friend, these words encouraged Russian photographer Yuliya Skorobogatova

to carry out an empowering project that filled that alleged idleness with lots of life. Titled “Mom

at work”, she portrayed young women during their daily attempt to balance family and work.

“Elena, cook. Married with two sons, eight and four years” is the (slightly ironic) title

Skorobogatova gave one of her pictures: a reference to the men usually away at work. No

doubt a professional cook can also formidably cook at home. But how do female actors,

Pilates teachers, veterinarians, architects, packaging designers, etc. manage to work when

they are surrounded by children? Skorobogatova, born in 1981 in Moscow, with two daughters,

captured some lovingly chaotic moments of their daily lives. Her works have been published,

for example, in Stern Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair. As for her professions, she

explicitly states “photographer and housewife”.

Photographer: Yuliya Skorobogatova, Russia (Freelance Photographer)


Iraq: Freed, but not free of fear

Mosul, Iraq, summer of 2017. The “Islamic State” has been driven from the second largest city

in Iraq – three years after they had captured it. The fighting during the months it took to

recapture the city, in whose Great Mosque the leader of ISIS had declared his caliphate, has

left the city in ruins. The population: turned into hostages, caught between the fronts and

repeatedly prevented from fleeing the city. Then this moment: a little barefoot girl who had just

arrived holding the hand of a young man stands in front of an Iraqi special forces checkpoint in

Kokjali. A soldier brandishing his weapon next to this shy little girl: one of the absurd situations

many of the city’s two million inhabitants had to live through, including the children. And still

have to. Photographer Zohra Bensemra, born in Algiers in 1968, captured the children’s fear

and vulnerability in this and other photographs. She is one of those photojournalists who go to

where it must even hurt the viewer to imagine such a life: She documented the Algerian civil

war, has been to Afghanistan and Somalia, Sudan and Libya. While working for Reuters, she

also traveled from Mosul to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the next location in the battle to oust ISIS,

to the next place where children also die.

Photographer: Zohra Bensemra, Algeriea (Thomson Reuters)


Ivory Coast: Creating hope together

In West Africa, such as here in Abidjan, the economic and cultural hub of Côte d’Ivoire, people

believe that twins have mystical powers. That’s why their mothers bring them to the vicinity of

the big mosque in Koumassi, a district of Abidjan, to offer the faithful a chance to get additional

blessings from their twins – for a little money, of course. Photographer Anush Babajanyan,

born in 1983 in Armenia, coincidentally found out about this kind of offering that combines

superstition, poverty and a peculiar form of child labor. She saw dozens of twins in the streets,

dressed up and posing for hours. A cute, but also sad encounter, according to the

photographer who works for the agency VII and whose work was published, for example, in

the New York Times, the Washington Post and National Geographic. Babajanyan’s main topic:

The peace process between Turkey and her home country of Armenia, which she wants to

support, for example, through a project involving young photographers from both countries.

Photographer: Anush Babajanyan, Armenia (VII Agency)


Great Britain: On the losing side

Unemployment, gang crime, teenage pregnancies, drugs, alcohol – especially in the former

industrial hubs of the United Kingdom and even more in Scotland and Northern Ireland – are

part of the everyday life of many young people. Several government programs helped to

somewhat improve their situation, but could not relieve the majority of young people from their

structural hardships and lack of perspective. Here, the unemployment rate among young

people is three times higher than with the rest of the population. In specific crisis hot spots it is

even eleven times higher. And latent violence is still simmering under the surface due to the

persistence of (religious) segregation and separation and the continued existence of former

paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. Photographer Toby Binder, born in 1977 in Esslingen

and a member of the agency Anzensberger, has spent many years documenting the situation

of children and adolescents in the traditional working-class districts of Belfast, Glasgow,

Edinburgh and Liverpool. He lives in Munich and Buenos Aires; his works – mostly social

(photo) documentaries – have been published in over two dozen newspapers and magazines

in Germany alone and have also won numerous awards and nominations.

Photographer: Toby Binder, Germany (Freelance Photographer)


Germany: When dad is everything

Hannah lives with her dad in a small apartment in Hanover’s district of Linden. She was only a

few months old when her mother died in a car crash. The girl was not old enough to have any

memories of the time before. Losing her mother thus haunts him more than her, says her

father. Once in a while, however, there are those moments of melancholy and silent grief.

Leona Ohsiek, born in 1995 and currently a student of Photojournalism and Documentary

Photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, has documented “the

ups and downs of a small family without a mother” in a sensitive and affectionate manner,

simultaneously perceiving the emotional relationship of two people whose heart was taken

away.

Photographer: Leona Ohsiek, Germany (UAS Hannover)


Bangladesh: Waiting with their last ounce of strength

Another Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. Many didn’t make it that far – their throats

were cut, they were thrown off cliffs, their limbs were hacked off. Those who survived have

brought with them the traumatic memories of the events. Now they are sitting in line and

waiting for help – sometimes the whole day. A young mother tries to free her child from the

crowd, get some fresh air and shade. Danish photojournalist Jacob Ehrbahn, born in 1970, has

worked for the daily newspaper Politiken since 2003 and was on site to capture this scene. He

is a three-time winner of the “Photographer of the Year” award in his home country of

Denmark; at an international level, he has won almost as many renowned prizes as

Muhammed Muheisen. And like Muheisen and other photographers, whose works from war

zones can be seen here, Ehrbahn’s photo series prove that even a billion pictures shared on

Facebook cannot diminish the importance of socially engaged, professional photography.

These are the images that make it impossible to forget and to look away. The images that

create political pressure to act.

Photographer: Jacob Ehrbahn, Denmark (for Politiken)


Afghanistan: Bismillah’s Sense of Snow

Far, far away from what we call the “alpine skiing circus”, there are some downhill and slalom

specialists for whom their planks might not mean the world. But which nevertheless grant them

access to a kind of winter fun that is not exactly a mass phenomenon in Afghanistan. It was

two members of an aid organization who in 2009 brought their skis to the Au Bala village in the

remote Fuladi valley. And they obviously made quite an impression. When Australian

photographer Andrew Quilty visited Au Bala eight years later, he met Bismillah, Aliqullah, Baz

Mohammed and other boys who showed him their self-made skis: roughly hewn planks to

which the boys attached ski bindings made of plastic and nylon strips. It is improbable, though,

that the region, once famous for its Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, will

become a mecca for experts from the skiing industry. Quilty, one-time winner of the World

Press Photo Award in the sports category, was highly impressed and thus very happy when

the village elders allowed him to use the lobby of their mosque as a photo studio. Born in

1983, he works for Agence Vu in Paris, has won numerous photography awards and, following

stops in Sydney and New York, now lives in Kabul.

Photographer: Andrew Quilty, Australia (Agence VU)


Tanzania: Stronger than the sun

Time and again, photographers have reported on the fate of albinos in Africa – and on the

danger these white-skinned children live in due to the horrible superstition that their body parts

have supernatural properties and can bring good luck. Spanish photojournalist Ana Palacios,

born in 1984, not only raised the alarm on the issue but also went looking for official help for

albinos. She found it in the Tanzanian city of Kabanga, where albino children are protected

against an even greater threat: the sun. As people with albinism have a lack of melanin

(pigment) in their skin, they are at increased risk of sunburn and developing skin cancer before

the age of thirty if not properly protected. Palacios’ photos, such as the one of Kelen, who

loves to dance in the half-built rooms of the Kabanga Refuge Center, capture the vitality and

happiness of children who get the chance to feel protected. Ana Palacios aims to bring light

into the dark corners of our world. That’s why her main focus lies on human rights issues such

as child enslavement. Palacios’ work is regularly published in major international magazines;

she was honored with numerous exhibitions and awards and, as a movie production

coordinator, worked with the likes of Milos Forman, Jim Jarmusch and Ridley Scott.

Photographer: Ana Palacios, Spain (Freelance Photographer)


Zanzibar: On the girls’ right not to drown

Tanzania’s semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim. For this reason, the

religious authorities of this archipelago off the coast of East Africa never allowed women to

swim. Although the rate of drowning on the African continent is the highest in the world, the

patriarchal gender norms prevailed even on the beach. Until a number of brave women started

the “Panje” project (“Panje” roughly translates to “big fish”). Since then, the girls of Kijini

elementary school on the main island of Unguja are “big fishes” as well, claiming their right to

enter the water in a “Burkini” and not drown in the process. Photographer Anna Boyiazis, born

in 1967 in California as the daughter of Greek parents from the Aegean Sea and as a child

going under the nickname “psaroukla” (big fish), works as a photojournalist covering mainly

women’s rights. She is active in the campaign #womenmatter, has won a number of

international awards, teaches at art schools, and publishes books on design and architecture.

Asked about the movement of girls and young women on Zanzibar, she stated that it was still

fragile, resisted mainly by old men. But luckily, Kazija, Chema, Mwanaidi and Siti are now just

swimming away from them.

Photographer: Anna Boyiazis, USA (Freelance Photographer)


Syria: Nothing is over

Aleppo in ruins, Homs an apocalypse: Worse only Hiroshima and Nagasaki, maybe only

Dresden, Kassel, Cologne at the end of World War II looked like some Syrian cities do in 2017.

Among the ruins: Girls like Victoria who is at least alive and has returned with her brother and

her parents to a house they can’t live in anymore. Among the rubble: Children looking for

firewood, rummaging through destroyed shops, looking at utter destruction, finding starving

cats. How to start a new life here? Where to find a roof to sleep under? Attend which school?

Hoping for what kind of help? How to survive the next winter? Nothing is over here. There is no

peace here. No Marshall Plan in sight, and no end to the old regime. German photo reporter

Christian Werner, born in 1987 and a former student of Photojournalism and Documentary

Photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover went to Aleppo and

Homs after they were recaptured – with the help of Russia and Iran – by the troops of Baschar

al-Assad. Werner has worked for the agencies laif and Zeitenspiegel; his works were

published, for example, in Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and the Washington Post. He was also one of

the winners of the UNICEF Photo of the Year Awards 2014 with his photo series about the fate

of the Yazidis in Iraq. One of Werner’s most comprehensive photo series was the one about

the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean: another tragedy with no end in sight...

Photographer: Christian Werner, Germany (Freelance Photographer)

Text: © Peter-Matthias Gaede for UNICEF, November 2017

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