The photo of Ukrainian photographer Yevhen Maloletka won the World Press Photo of the Year competition. He took this photo for the Associated Press.
Associated Press/Yevhen Maloletka
This is a photo of a pregnant woman being carried by rescuers on a stretcher through rubble after the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022. The picture shows the Ukrainian Iryna Kalinina, who first lost her child, and shortly after that died herself.
The director of the World Press Photo Foundation Juman El Zein Khoury stated that the picture clearly shows the war crimes committed by Russia against the civilian population of Ukraine.
All members of the jury unanimously chose this work of the Ukrainian photographer as the photo of the year, with one exception.
According to the rules of the competition, the photo of the year is chosen from among the candidates of this category who won at the regional stage, from all six regions.
The photo of a pregnant woman on a stretcher was included in the series that became the regional winner in the category "Europe. Photo report", but the jury singled out this photo and made it the photo of the year.
According to the results of the regional stage of the competition in the category "Europe. Photo" another work dedicated to the war in Ukraine was selected. This picture was taken by Reuters Greek photographer Alkis Konstantinidis.
At the regional stage, Yevhen Maloletka became a laureate in the category "Europe. Photo report". However, according to the juryʼs decision, in the end, it was his photo from a whole series about the battle for Mariupol that became the best single photo of the year.
"It was absolutely obvious to all seven members of the jury that this picture should be the photo of the year. They believed that it showed not only the horrors of war in general, but also the whole tragedy on a very personal level. This photo has it all. Look at her. A woman holding her stomach with her hands. Here is the whole absurdity of war. She is lying on a blanket with a picture of strawberries. Such a childrenʼs picture. And this bright strawberry color is like blood. It was a very decisive moment in this war in Ukraine," Juman El-Zein Khoury explains the decision of the international jury in an interview with DW.
- The works of the laureates will be presented at exhibitions in 60 cities around the world: on April 22, the first of them will open in Amsterdam, then it will go to Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Sydney, Toronto and other cities.