SOURCE : http://www.boston.com
For over 55 years, the World Press Photo contest has encouraged the highest standards in photojournalism. The contest is judged by leading experts in visual journalism who represent various aspects of the profession and the composition of the jury is changed from year to year. The prize-winning images are assembled into an exhibition that travels to 45 countries over the course of a year and over two million people go to a hundred different venues to see the images. The winners themselves uphold the foundation's simple mission statement: We exist to inspire understanding of the world through quality photojournalism. A sampling of the winning images follows. You can browse more amazing content on World Press Photo. --
World Press Photo of the Year 2012 - Paul Hansen/Sweeden/Dagens Nyheter - Nov. 20, 2012, Gaza City, Palestinian Territories. Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her three-year-old brother Muhammad were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. Their father, Fouad, was also killed and their mother was put in intensive care. Fouad’s brothers carry his children to the mosque for the burial ceremony as his body is carried behind on a stretcher.
2nd Prize, Spot News Single - Emin Ozmen/Turkey - July 31, 2012, Aleppo, Syria. Opposition fighters regularly launched operations to seize government informants after dark. Two informants were captured, declared guilty under interrogation, and tortured throughout the night; tired soldiers had to be replaced so the torture could continue. After 48 hours, the captives were released.#
2nd Prize Spot News Stories - Fabio Bucciarelli/Italy/Agence France-Presse - Oct. 10, 2012, Aleppo, Syria. A Free Syrian Army fighter takes up a position during clashes against government forces in the Sulemain Halabi district.#
1st Prize General News Single - Rodrigo And, Argentina, The Associated Press - March 10, 2012, Idib, Syria. Aida cries while recovering from severe injuries she received when her house was shelled by the Syrian Army. Her husband and two children were fatally wounded during the shelling.#
3rd Prize General News Stories - Daniel Berehulak/Australia/Getty Images - Japan After the Wave - March 7, 2012, Rikuzentakata, Japan. Pine trees uprooted during the tsunami lay strewn over the beach.One year later, areas of Japan most impacted by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that left 15,848 dead and 3,305 missing, continue to struggle. Thousands of people remain living in temporary dwellings. The government faces an uphill battle with the need to dispose of rubble as it works to rebuild economies and livelihoods.#
1st Prize Sports - Sports Action Single - Wei Seng Chen/Malaysia - Pacu Jawi Bull Race, Indonesia - Feb. 12, 2012, Batu Sangkar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. A jockey, his feet stepped into a harness strapped to the bulls and clutching their tails, shows relief and joy at the end of a dangerous run across rice fields. The Pacu Jawi (bull race) is a popular competition at the end of harvest season keenly contested between villages.#
2nd Prize Sports - Sports Action Stories - Sergei Ilnitsky/Russia/European Pressphoto Agency - The Golden Touch, Fencing at the Olympics, July 31, 2012, London, UK. Alaaeldin Abouelkassem of Egypt in action against Peter Joppich of Germany during their Men's Foil Individual Round 16 match. Years of training, thousands of battles, and hundreds of victories prepared fencing competitors for the opportunity to stand on the piste at the 2012 London Olympic Games to fight for gold.#
1st Prize Sports - Sports Features Stories - Jan Grarup/Denmark/Laif - Women's Basketball, Mogadishu, Somalia - Feb. 21, 2012, Mogadishu, Somalia. The Somali basketball association pays armed guards to watch over and protect Suweys and her team when they play. In Mogadishu, the war-torn capital of Somalia, young women risk their lives to play basketball. Suweys, the 19-year-old captain of a women's basketball team, and her friends defy radical Islamist views on women’s rights. They have received many death threats from not only al-Shabaab militias and radical Islamists, but some male members of their own families. "I just want to dunk," said Suweys. It is on the basketball court she feels happiest. "Basketball makes me forget all my problems.”#
1st Prize Contemporary Issues Single - Micah Albert/USA/Redux Images - April 3, 2012, Nairobi, Kenya. Pausing in the rain, a woman working as a trash picker at the 30-acre dump, which literally spills into households of one million people living in nearby slums, wishes she had more time to look at the books she comes across. She even likes the industrial parts catalogs. “It gives me something else to do in the day besides picking [trash],” she said.#
1st Prize Contemporary Issues Stories - Maika Elan/Vietnam/Most - The Pink Choice, Vietnam - June 22, 2012, Da Nang, Vietnam. Phan Thi Thuy Vy and Dang Thi Bich Bay, who have been together for one year, watch television to relax after studying at school. Vietnam has historically been unwelcoming to same-sex relationships. But its Communist government is considering recognizing same-sex marriage, a move that would make it the first Asian country to do so, despite past human rights issues and a long-standing stigma. In August 2012, the country’s first public gay pride parade took place in Hanoi.#
2nd Prize Daily Life Singles - Soren Bidstrup/Denmark/Berlingske - Early Morning on Summer Holiday, Italy - July 8, 2012, Jeselo, Italy. Summer holiday camping. Someone is up a little too early.#
1st Prize Daily Life Stories - Fausto Podavini/Italy - Mirella - June 1, 2012, Rome, Italy. Despite her husband's life-threatening disease, Mirella devoted her life to assisting Luigi, trying to be positive and reassuring, looking after him with intense love and respect. Everyday care, usually done in a few minutes, takes hours when it concerns someone with dementia. Mirella, 71, spent 43 years of her life with the only person she loved, with all of life's difficulties, laughter, and beautiful moments. But over the last six years things changed: Mirella lived with her husband Luigi’s illness, Alzheimer’s, and devoted her life to him as his caregiver.#
3rd Prize People - Observed Portraits Single - Ilona Szwarc/Poland/Redux Pictures - Kayla, Boston, USA - Feb. 19, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts, USA - “American Girl” is a popular line of dolls that can be customized to look exactly like their owners. Kayla poses with her lookalike doll in front of a portrait of her ancestors.#
3rd Prize People - Observed Portraits Stories - Ananda van deer Pluijm/The Netherlands - Martin - Feb. 15, 2012, Tilburg, The Netherlands. After living with his father for ten years and staying in a youth shelter, Martin, 18, returned home two years ago to live with his mother. He arrived with some clothes in a bag and no work or degree.#
2nd Prize People - Staged Portraits Single - Stefen Chow/Malaysia/for Smithsonian Magazine - Ai Wei Wei - Feb. 6, 2012, Beijing, China - Ai Weiwei#
1st Prize People - Staged Portraits Stories - Stephan Vanfleteren/Belgium/Panos for Mercy Ships/De Standaard - People of Mercy, Guinea - Oct. 17, 2012, Conakry, Guinea. Makone Soumaoro, 30, goiter. “I don't have pain, but I am worried that my neck swells that much. I hope it it is not a tumor because I am a housewife and my man and three children need me.” Guinea is one of the least developed countries in the world. More than 60 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar per day. Three quarters of the population is illiterate. Health care is substandard and unaffordable for most people. Some get help with their health problems from NGO Mercy Ships aboard the hospital ship 'African Mercy' docked in the capital Conakry. They are treated by volunteer surgeons, doctors and nurses with such health issues as cataracts, teeth problems, and skin diseases to more complex orthopedic or tumor surgeries.#
1st Prize Nature Single - Christian Ziegler/Germany/Southern Cassowary, Australia - Nov. 16, 2012, Black Mountain Road, Australia. The endangered Southern Cassowary feeds on the fruit of the Blue Quandang tree. Cassowaries are a keystone species in northern Australian rainforests because of their ability to carry so many big seeds such long distances.#
1st Prize Nature Stories - Paul Nicklen/Canada/National Geographic Magazine - Emperor Penguins, Ross Sea - Nov. 18, 2012, Ross Sea, Antarctica. Even though they have evolved an incredibly advanced bubble physiology the greatest challenge they face is the loss of sea ice that supports their colonies and ecosystem. New science shows that Emperor Penguins are capable of tripling their swimming speed by releasing millions of bubbles from their feathers. These bubbles reduce the friction between their feathers and the icy seawater, allowing them to accelerate in the water. They use speeds of up to 30 kilometers per hour to avoid leopard seals and to launch themselves up onto the ice.#
SOURCE : http://www.boston.com
Here in the northern hemisphere spring is but a rumor. Record snowfalls have taxed budgets and patience, and slowed transit from planes to pedestrians. Not that some aren't enjoying the abundance, as winter sports play out on beautiful frozen blankets of snow. Gathered here are images of people struggling with and enjoying their wintery blasts. -- Lane Turner (47 photos total)
Ice crystals form frost on the window of a home in Medina, Minn. on January 21, 2013. (Richard Sennott/The Star Tribune/Associated Press)
People visit the 15th International Sculpture Symposium "Snow Kingdom 2013" in Pustevny, Czech Republic on January 16, 2013. (Radek Mica/AFP/Getty Images) #
Arielle Gold of the US eats snowflakes on the podium after the snowboard halfpipe finals at the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Stoneham, Quebec on January 20, 2013. (Mathieu Belanger/Reuters) #
Vineyards winter under snow near Ebingen, Germany on February 8, 2013. (Patrick Seeger/dpa/Associated Press) #
Snow covered containers create a pattern in the port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands on January 15, 2013. (Robin Utrecht/AFP/Getty Images) #
Around 2,000 people make snow angels at the University of Minnesota Duluth on February 9, 2013, in Duluth, Minn. The event was held to try to break the world record of 8,962 snow angels in one area set in 2007 in Bismarck, N.D. (Clint Austin/The Duluth News-Tribune/Associated Press) #
Climbers clear snow from the roof of the stadium of FC Bayern Munich in Munich on January 18, 2013. (Joerg Koch/dapd/Associated Press) #
Competitors get ready to take part in the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido on January 26, 2013 in London. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) #
Children pour cold water on themselves under the control of fitness coach Margarita Filimonova at kindergarten number 317, with the air temperature at about minus 23 degrees Celsius, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia on February 5, 2013. The program has been practiced by the kindergarten for 15 years. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters) #
South Korean special warfare forces take part in a winter season drill in Pyeongchang on January 9, 2013. (Dong-A Ilbo/AFP/Getty Images) #
A man crosses himself after plunging into cold water to mark Epiphany in St.Petersburg, Russia on January 19, 2013. (Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press) #
Participants of the National Championship Marathon at the Veluwemeer (Lake Veluwe) compete near Elburg, The Netherlands on January 25, 2013. (Vincent Janninck/AFP/Getty Images) #
Swedish freeride skier Jon Oerarbaeck speeds down deep powder snow during a freeride skiing tour on Seegrube Mountain in Innsbruck on January 19, 2013. (Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters) #
People play after a heavy snowstorm in the desert near Tabuk, Saudi Arabia on January 9, 2013. (Mohamed Alhwaity/Reuters) #
Miguel Sanchez, 16, flies off a ramp of snow on February 22, 2013 in Garden City, Kan. (Brad Nading/Garden City Telegram/Associated Press) #
A pony runs in the snow near Warsaw, Poland on February 7, 2013. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images) #
A man skates past ice sculptures at a festival at the "Eight Lakes" Park-Resort outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on January 14, 2013. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters) #
Adam Bloss, an inmate at the Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, cuts ice blocks from Lake Flower to be used in the construction of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace on January 28, 2013, in Saranac Lake, N.Y. (Mike Groll/Associated Press) #
People ride an ice bicycle on frozen Houhai Lake on February 3, 2013 in Beijing. (Feng Li/Getty Images) #
A stuntman jump his snowmobile before the 1st stage of the Rally Sweden, the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship on February 7, 2013 in Karlstad, Sweden. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images) #
Anzhi Makhachkala's Ivorian striker Lacina Traore walks through the snow during a UEFA Europa League football match against Hannover 96 in Hanover, Germany on February 21, 2013. (Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images) #
A youth who has turned or will turn 20 this year, the traditional age of adulthood in Japan, speaks on a mobile phone following a coming of age ceremony at an amusement park in Tokyo on January 14, 2013. (Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated Press) #
People cross a bridge in Bolton Abbey, England on January 14, 2013. (Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images) #
Snow is cleared off the roof of a house boat in Srinagar, Kashmir on January 18, 2013. (Rouf Bhat/AFP/Getty Images) #
Retired teacher Gao Yinyu, 77, prepares to go for a swim in the nude in Jilin, China in -25 degrees Celsius weather. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images) #
A snowman greets pedestrians on January 19, 2013 in Paris. (Mehdi Fedouach/AFP/Getty Images) #
Anwar Ali, 13 (left) and his brother Hamad, 8, warm themselves while waiting for customers to pose for a picture next to a snow statue they built on a roadside in Murree, Pakistan on January 9, 2013. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press) #
A man warms himself on a foggy winter day in Dhaka on January 10, 2013. Bangladesh recorded its lowest temperature in 45 years. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters) #
Icicles form in an orange grove in Redlands, Calif. on January 15, 2013. A cold snap had farmers struggling to protect a $1.5 billion citrus crop. (Jae C. Hong)/Associated Press) #
A commuter looks through a snow covered window of a tram in Minsk, Belorussia on January 17, 2013. (Victor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images) #
A member of the ground staff clears snow from a C-17 cargo aircraft at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, England on January 14, 2013. (Andrew Winning/Reuters) #
"Wild' Silvesterchlaeuse (New Years Clauses) wearing costumes and cow bells march through the snow near Unaesch, Switzerland on January 12, 2013. They walk from house to house to offer best wishes for the New Year to the farmers in this region. After a performance of singing and dancing they usually receive food, hot drinks or money. (Walter Bieri/Keystone/Associated Press) #
A seagull stands on Galata Tower in Istanbul on January 9, 2013. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images) #
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy builds a snow man at the Western Wall on January 9, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) #
A commuter ferry crosses the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia on January 23, 2013. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press/Associated Press) #
Snow clings to trees in Westonbirt Aboretum on January 24, 2013 near Tetbury, England. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)#
Gale Force winds make spectacular waves at the harbour in Seaham, England as they batter the seafront on February 6, 2013. (Owen Humphreys/PA/Associated Press)#
Crews respond to a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 94 in Benton Township, Mich. on February 19, 2013, after a winter storm dumped several inches of snow. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium/Associated Press)#
People shelter from the snow while walking along the Charles Bridge in Prague on February 12, 2013. (Vit Simanek/CTK/Associated Press)#
People walk through snow covered streets in Copley Square during a blizzard in Boston, Mass. on February 9, 2013. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)#
Afghan men walk on a snow-covered mountain on a cold winter's day outside Kabul on February 7 , 2013. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)#
Chicago Fire Department Lieutenant Charley De Jesus walks around an ice-covered warehouse that caught fire January 23, 2013. (John Gress/Reuters)#
A barge motors out of Portland Harbor, where the temperature at sunrise was about minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit, on January 24, 2013, in Portland, Maine. (Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press)#
An odd weather phenomenon called "cloud streets" cover the Great Lakes on January 22, 2013, seen by NASA's Aqua satellite. (NASA/AFP/Getty Images)#
Japanese macaque monkeys huddle together against the cold at Awajishima Monkey Center on January 26, 2013 in Sumoto, Japan. (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)#
A man walks through a courtyard in Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha, Russia on February 3, 2013. The coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded in Sakha. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)#
A young woman breaks slabs of frozen snow floating on high water in Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy on February 11, 2013. (Andrea Merola/EPA)#
