World Press Photo equates suffering of girl from Kupiansk with that of wounded militia fighter near Bakhmut. PHOTO
The World Press Photo 2025 organisation has announced the winners of its photo contest, selecting the best works by photojournalists and documentary photographers. Among them are two photos by German media professionals covering the Russian-Ukrainian war.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported on the World Press Photo website.
"The main themes of the winners for the European region were of course the conflict in Ukraine and the aftermath of that war, as well as migration and the political shift to the right that we see in Europe and elsewhere in the world," said Finbar O'Reilly, photographer, author and chairman of the Contest Europe 2025 jury.
The jury of the European regional contest in the "Singles" category selected and juxtaposed a portrait of a Ukrainian child from front-line Kupyansk with an image of a wounded Russian occupier from the so-called "DPR" in a field hospital near Russian-occupied Bakhmut.
Photo of six-year-old Anhelina
The photographer Florian Bachmeyer was shortlisted for the award with his work Behind the Trenches. The photo shows six-year-old Angelina from a village near Kupiansk, who was forced to move to Borshchivka, 95 kilometres from Kupiansk, because of the war.
As a result, the girl experiences panic attacks. The photographer wanted to show children around whom the war is going on, but they are adapting to a new life and demonstrating their resilience.
Photo of the Russian occupier
The work "Underground Field Hospital" by German journalist Nanna Heitmann, who works for The New York Times and lives in Moscow, won in the category of individual photos in the European region.
The photo shows a wounded 'DPR' militant in a field hospital near the temporarily occupied Bakhmut. He was mobilised into the 'people's militia' in the occupied Donetsk region. He later had his left arm and leg amputated.
The jury of the competition called these two images a "visual pair" that, in their opinion, conveys both the physical and psychological dimensions of the war, which they call the conflict.
According to World Press Photo, the Russian-Ukrainian war was one of the main topics of photography in Europe. Another key topic was migration and the "political shift to the right".
Ukraine's response
It should be noted that there are no Ukrainian photographers among the winners of the photo contest.
At the same time, two Russian photographers and a photographer from Belarus were awarded World Press Photo prizes. This is the first time since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russians have won awards at the competition.
The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers has issued a statement expressing surprise at the results of this year's World Press Photo 2025 international competition.
