Note to Correspondents

WORLD PRESS PHOTO EXHIBITION OPENS AT UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS ON 3 MAY

In observance of World Press Freedom Day, an exhibition of the best press photographs of 2005 will open in the Main Gallery of the General Assembly Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 3 May.  This travelling exhibition of winning images selected at a worldwide photojournalism contest in Amsterdam will remain on display through 29 May.

Statements at the formal exhibit opening will be made by the Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, Frank Majoor; President of TNT Express, North America, Matt McDonough; and Chairman of the Executive Board, World Press Photo, Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger.

Among the winning images featured in the exhibition is the World Press Photo of the Year 2005, regarded as the photojournalistic encapsulation of the year; a photograph that represents an issue, situation or event of great journalistic importance.  This year’s selection is a colour image showing the emaciated fingers of a one-year-old child pressed against the lips of his mother at an emergency feeding clinic in the Niger.  A devastating swarm of locusts and the worst drought in decades left millions of people short of food in the African State.  The picture was taken in Tahoua, north-western Niger, on 1 August 2005 by Canadian photographer Finbarr O’Reilly of Reuters.

For 2005, 4,448 professional photographers from 122 countries entered 83,044 images in the most prestigious annual international competition in press photography.  The judging of the completely digital submissions took place in Amsterdam.  An international jury gave prizes in 10 theme categories to 63 photographers from 25 countries.  World Press Photo, an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1955 in the Netherlands, is committed to supporting and promoting the work of professional press photographers.  It has evolved into an independent platform for photojournalism and the free exchange of information.

This photo exhibit is sponsored by the World Press Photo Foundation, the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations, Getty Images, Canon, TNT and the Department of Public Information.  A selection of the winning images is available for publication on the international wire services of Reuters, Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP), Associated Press (AP), Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA).  For additional information, visit the World Press Photo website:  www.worldpressphoto.nl.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at tel.:  (212) 963-8531 or Liza Wichmann at tel.:  (212) 963-0089.

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For information media • not an official record