2011 World Press Photo Winner Announced

A photograph of a woman holding a wounded family member in a mosque being used as a field hospital during the protests in Yemen has won the World Press Photo 2011 photo of the year. The international jury, deliberating in Amsterdam, announced the winner on 10 February.

The winning piece is the work of Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda. He took the picture on 15 October last year for The New York Times, when protesters gathered in the capital Sanaa demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. With the prize, Aranda will take home 10,000 USD.

The jury praised the photo for reflecting conflict that has gripped the whole Middle East region. "He represents Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for everything that has happened in the Arab spring," said one of the members. "But it also shows an intimate side of what happened."

Jury President Aidan Sullivan called 2011 a special year with "catastrophic events," including the tsunami in Japan and the Arab spring, which still continues. Many entries were were submitted from those uprisings, according to him, and he praised the photographers who risk their lives by reporting on the riots in the Arab world. Aranda is one of them, he said.

The jury awarded further prizes in nine categories to 57 photographers from 24 countries. Among them were five winners from the Netherlands: Rob Hornstra won first prize for his series on Sochi Singers in the category of "art and entertainment." Photographer Ton Koene, who works regularly for Dutch daily de Volkskrant from Afghanistan, won the 2nd prize in "portraits" with a series of depicting recruits at a police school in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Ilvy Njiokiktjien won second in "contemporary issues," Paolo Woods received a third prize in the category of "daily life." Pavel Prokopchik was third with a picture in the category of "art and entertainment."

This year marks the World Press Photo's 55th contest. The jury chose winners from a collection of 101,254 entries. According to Sullivan, submissions included images that were created with the new smart phone application Hipstamatic. Although none of those images were of sufficient quality to stand against the winning images, their presents represents a growing trend in citizen photo-journalism.

Last year's winner was South African photographer Jodi Bieber's arresting portrait of Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for running away from her abusive in-laws.

All of the 2011 World Press Photo winners will be on display in the Amsterdam Oude Kerk from 20 April to 17 June.