World Press Photo jury apologises for combining photos of Ukrainian child and Russian occupier
The jury and World Press Photo apologised for combining photos "Beyond the Trenches" by Florian Bachmeier and "Underground Field Hospital" by Nanna Heitmann.
The organisers of the competition informed this to Detector Media, Censor.NET reports.
"The international jury and World Press Photo apologise for combining these two works - 'Underground Field Hospital' by Nanna Heitmann and 'Beyond the Trenches' by Florian Bachmeier - into one pair. There is an obvious difference between a child suffering from the consequences of war and the torment of a soldier of the occupying forces who causes this suffering," the statement reads
"We should not have presented these two photographs as a pair, as this implies that they should be viewed and understood only in dialogue with each other. This creates an overly simplistic and false equivalence and puts the story that each of them unfolds on its own in the background. These stories, meanwhile, point to only two aspects of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine," said Lucy Conticello, chair of the international jury.
They also commented on the prize for Russian propaganda photographer Mikhail Tereshchenko. The organisers stated that they would not cancel the awards, but that they planned to improve the rules and procedures for dealing with applications from photographers working for state institutions.
In doing so, they will consult with photographers working in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, as well as photographers working in countries with repressive regimes who often try to do "good work in their own difficult situations".
As reported earlier, World Press Photo equated the pain of a girl from Kupiansk and a wounded "DPR" militant near Bakhmut.
Also, a photojournalist from the Russian propaganda news agency TASS Tereshchenko won the World Press Photo International Documentary Photography Contest, reporting on the "liberation" of Mariupol in 2022.
