Note to Correspondents

Exhibit of Best Press Photographs Opens at United Nations Headquarters, 5 August

 

An exhibition of the best press photographs of 2009 will open in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at 6 p.m. Thursday, 5 August.  This travelling exhibition of winning images selected at the fifty-third annual World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam will remain on display through 2 September.

Among the winning images featured in the exhibition is the World Press Photo of the Year 2009, an image by Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo depicting women shouting in protest from a rooftop in Tehran on 24 June.  The winning photograph is part of a story describing the nights following the contested presidential elections in Iran, when people shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime protests in the streets.  The story as a whole was awarded first prize in the category “People in the News”.

The annual World Press Photo Contest has become a standard of quality in the industry.  Each year, entries are submitted by photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from around the world.  This year, more than 5,847 photographers from 128 countries submitted a total of 101,960 images.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, where it was founded in 1955.  It aims to support professional press photography on a wide international scale.  Promotional activities include an annual contest, exhibitions, the stimulation of photojournalism through educational programmes and creating greater visibility for press photography through a variety of publications.

This photo exhibit at United Nations Headquarters is sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information.  World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon and TNT Express.  A selection of winning images is available for publication in the press download area at the World Press Photo website at www.worldpressphoto.org/downloads.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at tel.: +1 212 963 8531 or Liza Wichmann at tel.: +1 212 963 0089.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record