Through the lens

World Press Photo of the Year

Aphoto symbolising “love and compassion“, of an 85-year-old Brazilian woman getting her first embrace in five months from a nurse through a transparent “hug curtain“, was named the World Press Photo of the Year this week.

The choice of a winning photo portraying the global pandemic was almost inevitable for the contest covering a year in which news around the globe was dominated by the virus that has killed nearly three million people, including more than 360,000 in Brazil.

The image by Danish photographer Mads Nissen captured the moment Rosa Luzia Lunardi was hugged by nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza at the Viva Bem care home in Sao Paulo on August 5.

A curtain of clear plastic — its yellow edges folded into a shape resembling a pair of butterfly wings — offers protection, as does the nurse’s face mask.

“This iconic image of Covid-19 memorialises the most extraordinary moment of our lives, everywhere,” said jury member Kevin WY Lee.

“I read vulnerability, loved ones, loss and separation, demise, but, importantly, also survival — all rolled into one graphic image. If you look at the image long enough, you’ll see wings: a symbol of flight and hope.”

The image taken by Nissen for the Panos Pictures agency and the Danish daily Politiken also won first prize in the prestigious contest’s General News Singles category.

“The main message of this image is empathy. It’s love and compassion,” Nissen said in a comment released by contest organisers.Second place in the category was a far more grim Covid-19 image — the body of a suspected coronavirus victim tightly wrapped in plastic in a hospital in Indonesia on April 18 by Indonesian photographer Joshua Irwandi.

The pandemic even reached the Environment Singles category, with US photographer Ralph Pace winning for his image of a curious California sea lion swimming toward a face mask drifting underwater at the Breakwater dive site in Monterey.

Judges looked at 74,470 photographs by 4,315 photographers before selecting winners in eight categories including general news, sport, the environment and portraits.

The World Press Photo Story of the Year was awarded to Italian documentary photographer Antonio Faccilongo, working for Getty Reportage, for a series titled “Habibi“about Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons who smuggle their semen out of detention facilities in the hopes of raising a family.

Winner in the Spot News Singles category was an image embodying the debate on race in the United States.

The photo by Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post shows a white man and a black woman disagreeing about the removal of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington DC, which depicts a freed slave kneeling at Abraham Lincoln’s feet.

The Black Lives Matter movement also featured, with Associated Press photographer John Minchillo’s series about the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd taking third prize in the Spot News Stories category that was won by Italian Lorenzo Tugnoli, working for Contrasto, for a series of images documenting the devastating port blast in Beirut.

The Contemporary Issues Story category was won by Russian photographer Alexey Vasilyev with a series about the film industry in the northeast Russian region of Sakha.

Associated Press photographer Maya Alleruzzo took second place in the category with a story about Islamic State enslaving Yazidi women in Iraq.

World Press Photo of the Year was taken by Mads Nissen, Politiken, Panos Pictures.Titled The First Embrace, it shows Rosa Luzia Lunardi (85) embraced by nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza at Viva Bem care home, Sao Paulo, Brazil. This photo by Alexey Vasilyev is part of a series titled Sakhawood, which won the first prize in the Contemporary Issues Stories category. It shows twins Semyon and Stepan performing in the roles of dulgancha, mythical swamp creatures, in The Old Beyberikeen With Five Cows, in Sakha, in the Russian Federation. It is their first part in a film.

This image by Antonio Faccilongo, Getty Reportage, is part of a series titled Habibi, which won the World Press Photo Story of the Year award and the first prize in Long-Term Projects category. It shows Nael alBarghouthi’s suit hanging in his bedroom in Kobar, near Ramallah, Palestinian Territories, on August 17, 2015. Al-Barghouthi’s wife, Iman Nafi, keeps all her husband’s clothes and belongings in place. AlBarghouthi was arrested in 1978 after an anti-Israel commando operation.

This image by John Minchillo, Associated Press, part of a series titled Minneapolis Unrest: The George Floyd Aftermath, which won third prize in the Spot News Stories category, shows protesters raising their fists in defiance outside a burning fastfood restaurant near the precinct station of the officers who arrested Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

This photo by Maya Alleruzzo, Associated Press, is part of a series titled Islamic State’s Yazidi Survivors, which won the second prize in the Contemporary Issues Stories category. It shows Layla Taloo posing for a portrait at her home in Sharia, Iraq, in the full-face veil and abaya she wore while enslaved for two-and-a-half years by Islamic State militants.

Lorenzo Tugnoli, Contrasto, for The Washington Post series titled Port Explosion in Beirut, won first prize in the Spot News Stories category. This picture shows an injured man near the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, while firefighters work to put out the fires that engulfed the warehouses after the explosion.

The Washington Post’s Evelyn Hockstein took this photo titled Emancipation Memorial Debate, which won first prize in the Spot News Singles category. It shows a man and woman disagreeing on the removal of the Emancipation Memorial, in Lincoln Park, Washington DC, USA.

This photo by Ralph Pace, titled California Sea Lion Plays with Mask, won the first prize in the Environment Singles category. It shows a curious California sea lion swimming towards a face mask at the Breakwater dive site in Monterey, California, USA.