World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Paul Hansen of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter as the World Press Photo of the Year 2012.

World Press Photo of the Year 2012 by Paul Hansen

The international jury of the 56th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Paul Hansen of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter as the World Press Photo of the Year 2012. The picture shows a group of men carrying the bodies of two dead children through a street in Gaza City. They are being taken to a mosque for the burial ceremony while their father’s body is carried behind on a stretcher. Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and his older brother Muhammad were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. Their mother was put in intensive care. The picture was made on 20 November 2012 in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories.

The jury gave prizes in nine themed categories to 54 photographers of 32 nationalities from: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Palestinian Territories, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Vietnam.

The members of the jury announced the winners at a press conference held at the World Press Photo office in Amsterdam on 15 February.

Comments on the winners by the jury

Mayu Mohanna, jury member from Peru, said of Paul Hansen’s winning picture: “The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children. It’s a picture I will not forget.”

Santiago Lyon, vice president and director of photography at The Associated Press, spoke of the selection of prizewinners: “When I look at the results, as chair of the jury, I think that the World Press Photo of the Year, and all the other photos that were given prizes, were solid, stellar examples of first-rate photojournalism that is powerful, that is lasting, and that will reach whoever looks at them.”

The judging was conducted at the World Press Photo office in Amsterdam. All entries were anonymously presented to the jury, who discussed their merits over a two-week period. The jury operates independently and a secretary without voting rights safeguards the fairness of the procedure. The contest drew entries from professional press photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers across the world. By the mid-January deadline, 103,481 images had been submitted by 5,666 photographers from 124 countries.

2013 Photo Contest Jury

A group of 19 internationally recognized professionals in the fields of photojournalism and documentary photography convened in Amsterdam from 2 to 14 February 2013 to judge all entries. The first and second rounds of judging concluded on 7 February and the final rounds started on 8 February. Video interviews with the chairs juries, with observations from the early rounds, can be viewed in thevideo library.

The final rounds are judged by:

Chair: Santiago Lyon, USA, vice president and director of photography The Associated Press

• Elisabeth Biondi, Germany/USA, independent curator

• Bill Frakes, USA, photographer Sports Illustrated

• Staffan Widstrand, Sweden, photographer and managing director Wild Wonders of Europe

• Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Iraq, special correspondent The Guardian

• Mayu Mohanna, Peru, photographer and curator

• Véronique de Viguerie, France, photographer Reportage by Getty Images

• Anne Wilkes Tucker, USA, curator photography Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

• Gu Zheng, China, professor at School of Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai

The first round in News and Documentary was judged by:

Chair: Santiago Lyon, USA, vice president and director of photography The Associated Press

• Monica Allende, Spain, photo editor The Sunday Times Magazine

• Jocelyn Bain Hogg, UK, photographer VII Photo Agency

• Rena Effendi, Azerbaijan, photographer

• Riason Naidoo, South Africa, director South African National Gallery, Iziko Museums of South Africa

The first and second rounds in Sports were judged by:

Chair: Bill Frakes, USA, photographer Sports Illustrated

• Anja Niedringhaus, Germany, photographer The Associated Press

• Pim Ras, the Netherlands, freelance photographer Algemeen Dagblad

The first and second rounds in Nature were judged by:

Chair: Staffan Widstrand, Sweden, photographer and managing director Wild Wonders of Europe

• Barbara Stauss, Switzerland, photo director and founding member Mare magazine

• Steve Winter, USA, contributing photographer National Geographic magazine

The first and second rounds in Portraits were judged by:

Chair: Elisabeth Biondi, Germany/USA, independent curator

• Jérôme Bonnet, France, photographer

• Platon, UK, photographer CLM/David Maloney

Jury secretaries:

• Secretary for News and Documentary and for the second week of judging: Daphné Anglès, France/USA, European photo assignments editor The New York Times 

• Secretary for Nature, Portraits and Sports: Simon Njami, Cameroon, independent curator, lecturer and art critic

Awards

The jury awarded first, second and third prizes in all categories. First-prize winners in each category receive a cash prize of €1,500. Winners of second and third prizes and those awarded an Honorable Mention receive a Golden Eye Award and a diploma. The premier award, the World Press Photo of the Year, carries a cash prize of €10,000. In addition, Canon will donate a professional DSLR camera and lens kit to the author of the World Press Photo of the Year 2012. The annual Awards Days, a celebration of the prizewinners, takes place in Amsterdam from 25 through 27 April 2013.

Exhibition

The prize-winning pictures are presented in an exhibition visiting more than 100 cities in over 45 countries. The first 2013 World Press Photo exhibition opens in Amsterdam on 26 April 2013.

World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.

Editors please note:

A press conference will take place at the World Press Photo office in Amsterdam on Friday 15 February 2013 at 10.00 a.m. CET. All information provided will be under embargo. If you wish to attend, please inform press@worldpressphoto.org by 13 February 2013 at the latest.

A selection of awarded images for publication will be made available at the press conference and on the international wire services (from 15 February 11 a.m. CET). The images may also be downloaded from our press download area atwww.worldpressphoto.org/downloads. Please register at the press download area before 14 February 2013.

Please contact Barbara Bufkens on press@worldpressphoto.org or tel. +31 (0)20 676 6096 for additional information and requests for interviews with jury members.

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Pope's sudden resignation sends shockwaves through Church

Pope Benedict stunned the Roman Catholic Church on Monday when he announced he would stand down, the first pope to do so in 700 years, saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to carry on.

Church officials tried to relay a climate of calm confidence in the running of a 2,000-year-old institution, but the decision could lead to uncertainty in a Church already besieged by scandal for covering up sexual abuse of children by priests.

The soft-spoken German, who always maintained that he never wanted to be pope, was an uncompromising conservative on social and theological issues, fighting what he regarded as the increasing secularization of society.

It remains to be seen whether his successor will continue such battles or do more to bend with the times.

Despite his firm opposition to tolerance of homosexual acts, his eight year reign saw gay marriage accepted in many countries. He has staunchly resisted allowing women to be ordained as priests, and opposed embryonic stem cell research, although he retreated slightly from the position that condoms could never be used to fight AIDS.

He repeatedly apologized for the Church's failure to root out child abuse by priests, but critics said he did too little and the efforts failed to stop a rapid decline in Church attendance in the West, especially in his native Europe.

In addition to child sexual abuse crises, his papacy saw the Church rocked by Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church's business dealings, his butler was accused of leaking his private papers.

In an announcement read to cardinals in Latin, the universal language of the Church, the 85-year-old said: "Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter ...

"As from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours (1900 GMT) the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

POPE DOESN'T FEAR SCHISM

Benedict is expected to go into isolation for at least a while after his resignation. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Benedict did not intend to influence the decision of the cardinals in a secret conclave to elect a successor.

A new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics could be elected as soon as Palm Sunday, on March 24, and be ready to take over by Easter a week later, Lombardi said.

Several popes in the past, including Benedict's predecessor John Paul, have refrained from stepping down over their health, because of the division that could be caused by having an "ex-pope" and a reigning pope alive at the same time.

Lombardi said the pope did not fear a possible "schism", with Catholics owing allegiances to a past and present pope in case of differences on Church teachings.

He indicated the complex machinery of the process to elect a new pope would move quickly because the Vatican would not have to wait until after the elaborate funeral services for a pope.

It is not clear if Benedict will have a public life after he resigns. Lombardi said Benedict would first go to the papal summer residence south of Rome and then move into a cloistered convent inside the Vatican walls.

The resignation means that cardinals from around the world will begin arriving in Rome in March and after preliminary meetings, lock themselves in a secret conclave and elect the new pope from among themselves in votes in the Sistine Chapel.

There has been growing pressure on the Church for it to choose a pope from the developing world to better reflect where most Catholics live and where the Church is growing.

"It could be time for a black pope, or a yellow one, or a red one, or a Latin American," said Guatemala's Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales.

The cardinals may also want a younger man. John Paul was 58 when he was elected in 1978. Benedict was 20 years older.

"We have had two intellectuals in a row, two academics, perhaps it is time for a diplomat," said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Rather than electing the smartest man in the room, they should elect the man who will listen to all the other smart people in the Church."

Liberals have already begun calling for a pope that would be more open to reform.

"The current system remains an 'old boy's club' and does not allow for women's voices to participate in the decision of the next leader of our Church," said the Women's Ordination Conference, a group that wants women to be able to be priests.

"GREAT COURAGE"

The last pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months, his resignation was known as "the great refusal" and was condemned by the poet Dante in the "Divine Comedy". Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the papacy.

Lombardi said Benedict's stepping aside showed "great courage". He ruled out any specific illness or depression and said the decision was made in the last few months "without outside pressure". But the decision was not without controversy.

"This is disconcerting, he is leaving his flock," said Alessandra Mussolini, a parliamentarian who is granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator. "The pope is not any man. He is the vicar of Christ. He should stay on to the end, go ahead and bear his cross to the end. This is a huge sign of world destabilization that will weaken the Church."

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, secretary to the late Pope John Paul, said the former pope had stayed on despite failing health for the last decade of his life as he believed "you cannot come down from the cross."

While the pope had slowed down recently - he started using a cane and a wheeled platform to take him up the long aisle in St Peter's Square - he had given no hint recently that he was considering such a dramatic decision.

Elected in 2005 to succeed the enormously popular John Paul, Benedict never appeared to feel comfortable in the job.

"MIND AND BODY"

In his announcement, the pope told the cardinals that in order to govern "... both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

Before he was elected pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known as "God's rottweiler" for his stern stand on theological issues. After a few months, he showed a milder side but he never drew the kind of adulation that had marked the 27-year papacy of his predecessor John Paul.

U.S. President Barack Obama extended prayers to Benedict and best wishes to those who would choose his successor.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pope's decision must be respected if he feels he is too weak to carry out his duties. British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "He will be missed as a spiritual leader to millions."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, said he had learned of the pope's decision with a heavy heart but complete understanding.

CHEERS AND SCANDAL

Elected to the papacy on April 19, 2005, Benedict ruled over a slower-paced, more cerebral and less impulsive Vatican.

But while conservatives cheered him for trying to reaffirm traditional Catholic identity, his critics accused him of turning back the clock on reforms by nearly half a century and hurting dialogue with Muslims, Jews and other Christians.

After appearing uncomfortable in the limelight at the start, he began feeling at home with his new job and showed that he intended to be pope in his way.

Despite great reverence for his charismatic, globe-trotting predecessor -- whom he put on the fast track to sainthood and whom he beatified in 2011 -- aides said he was determined not to change his quiet manner to imitate John Paul's style.

A quiet, professorial type who relaxed by playing the piano, he showed the gentle side of a man who was the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer for nearly a quarter of a century.

The first German pope for some 1,000 years and the second non-Italian in a row, he traveled regularly, making about four foreign trips a year, but never managed to draw the oceanic crowds of his predecessor.

The child abuse scandals hounded most of his papacy. He ordered an official inquiry into abuse in Ireland, which led to the resignation of several bishops.

Scandal from a source much closer to home hit in 2012 when the pontiff's butler, responsible for dressing him and bringing him meals, was found to be the source of leaked documents alleging corruption in the Vatican's business dealings.

Benedict confronted his own country's past when he visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Calling himself "a son of Germany", he prayed and asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims, most of them Jews, were killed there.

Ratzinger served in the Hitler Youth during World War Two when membership was compulsory. He was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Adolf Hitler's regime.

Additional reporting by James Mackenzie, Barry Moody, Cristiano Corvino, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin, and Dagamara Leszkowixa in Poland; Editing by Peter Graff

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The 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival official poster

It was one of those amazing encounters that give rise to collaborative projects as surprising as they are fabulous. The kind of encounter that Claude adored. At a night of music during the Montreux Jazz Festival in Kawasaki, Japan last November, Claude Nobs and Mathieu Jaton, along with their friend, the musician Seigen Ono, were discussing the Festival and the poster for 2013. Seigen Ono immediately suggested his friend, the artist Oscar Oiwa, for a lively and colorful poster in the naïve style. Touched by this international artist’s work, Claude and Mathieu quickly confirmed this project by an SMS to Oscar Oiwa, who at that moment was at his home in New York. Sadly, Claude never saw the completed work. But one thing is certain: in this painted jam, he would have pulled out his harmonica to join right in!

Oscar Oiwa was born in 1965 in São Paulo. After receiving a B.A. in Architecture and Urbanism at São Paulo University in 1989, he moved to Tokyo, Japan. While living and working there, his art was featured in numerous exhibitions. His home and studio have been in New York City since 2002.

Among his awards are an artist residency at The Delfina Studio Trust, London, in 1995, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 1996, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2001 and an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in 2001. His works has been shown widely throughout the United States, South America, Asia, and Europe. In 2008 he had a solo exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. He is going to have a solo exhibition in MASP-Museu de Arte de São Paulo in 2014. The exhibition will be traveling to several cities in Brazil.

His works are in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix Museum of Art, among others.For up coming exhibitions see : www.oscaroiwastudio.com

"It was a great honor for me to create the poster for the Montreux Jazz Festival 2013. My idea was to have musicians of different ages and cultural backgrounds play together in a summer sunset. The abstract landscape represents a mountain with vineyards and a lake. Light is shown coming from all directions, despite the shadows in the center. The characters are depicted in a style that comes from an area in Northeast Brazil (my home country) named Caruaru, where local people make small figurines using clay.

Thanks to my long time friend Seigen Ono for his collaboration and special thanks to Claude Nobs for his invitation. Unfortunately the visionary man never saw the finished painting and I never met him, but I believe his soul is well represented in this poster."

Oscar Oiwa

Visit the 2012 Montreux Jazz Festival website: www.montreuxjazzfestival.com

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World Press Photo Multimedia Contest winners revealed

© Miquel Dewever-Plana

Three stunning – and very different – pieces of work have scooped top honours in the World Press Photo Multimedia Contest 2013 in the contest's newly defined categories of Online Short, Online Feature and Online Interactive Documentary.

The judging for the third annual contest for multimedia productions took place from 26-31 January 2013 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with an international jury of experts, chaired by Keith W. Jenkins. The winners were announced on 1 February 2013.

This year, three new categories were introduced to accommodate evolving practices in visual journalism and documentary storytelling and chairman of the 2013 World Press Photo multimedia jury Keith W. Jenkins (Supervising Senior Producer for Multimedia at National Public Radio [NPR], USA) was hugely impressed by the depth and quality of the work, praising all the entries for their high standards, inventiveness and careful attention to detail.

© Pep Bonet/NOOR

Winning first prize in the Online Short category of the 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest was a film entitled ‘Into the Shadows’, directed by Pep Bonet from the NOOR Photo Agency and Line Hadsbjerg.

Winning first prize in the Online Short category was a film entitled ‘Into the Shadows’, directed by Pep Bonet from the NOOR Photo Agency and Line Hadsbjerg. In July 2012, Bonet, Hadsbjerg & José Bautista arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the intention of creating a body of documentary work consisting of written testimonies, pictures and a documentary film of the urban slum buildings in the inner city.

Jury chair Keith W. Jenkins told CPN: “It was one of a handful of entries that made the transition between photography and video virtually invisible. The piece began with wonderful still images that were well photographed, with great framing, and then the story unfolded with great video clips that explained everything that the stills revealed. It was an effortless piece, well constructed, and filmed and shot all in black & white, with immaculate print and superb attention to detail. It was clear to me, and to all the judges, that the production team really understood lighting both for stills and video, and never for a moment did you feel that you were being taken out of the moment – your attention was held the whole time.”

Jenkins added: “It was tight, emotional storytelling at its very best, with an economy of words, great pacing and a clear understanding that you need space and air between thoughts and concepts so they can be processed and sink in. It did all of that and didn’t miss a beat.”

Second prize in the Online Short category went to ‘Living with a Secret’ with photography, video and production by Arkasha Stevenson (Los Angeles Times); the executive producer was Marc Martin. Third prize in this cateory went to ‘Aleppo Battleground’ with images by Jérôme Sessini (Magnum Photos for Le Monde); the producers were Antonin Sabot and Marie Sumalla.

Sinclair wins Online Feature category

First prize in the Online Feature went to Stephanie Sinclair, for her piece entitled ‘Too Young to Wed’. Over an eight-year period, Sinclair has investigated the phenomenon of child marriage in India, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nepal and Ethiopia. Her multimedia presentation synthesises this body of work into a compelling call to action.

© Stephanie Sinclair/VII

First prize in the Online Feature category of the 2013 World Press Photo Multimedia Contest went to Stephanie Sinclair (VII), for her piece entitled ‘Too Young to Wed’. Over an eight-year period, Sinclair has investigated the phenomenon of child marriage in India, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nepal and Ethiopia.

“This was another piece that left us stunned,” Keith W. Jenkins revealed. “The level of nuance and complexity to the storytelling was hugely impressive. Stephanie worked with director and cinematographer Jessica Dimmock and together they tackled a story that started several years ago with stills photography. They picked it back up with video, finding the right characters and allowing them to tell their story with great depth and pacing.”

Jenkins added: “Part of understanding narrative is finding the right story, and here it was enhanced by great audio which really worked in binding the story together as we went on a journey to understand the characters and all their complexities as they tried to understand their place in the world.”

Second prize in the Online Feature category went to ‘Dying For Relief: Bitter Pills’ with photography, video and production by Liz O. Baylen (Los Angeles Times); the executive producer was Mary Vignoles. Third prize in the category went to ‘Dreams on freewheels’ by director, photographer and video editor Yang Enze (the Southern Metropolis Daily); produced by Tan Weishan.

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