Note to Correspondents

Exhibit of Best Press Photographs Opens at United Nations Headquarters

4 August; Winning Photo by South African Depicts Young Afghan Woman

An exhibition of the best press photographs of 2010 will open in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters in New York at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 4 August.  This traveling exhibition of winning images selected at the fifty-fourth annual World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam will be on display until 28 August.

Among the features in the exhibition is the World Press Photo of the Year 2010, a photograph that represents an issue, situation or event of great journalistic importance, regarded as the photojournalistic encapsulation of the year.  The international jury selected an image by South African photographer Jodi Bieber as World Press Photo of the Year 2010.  The picture shows Bibi Aisha, 18, who was disfigured as retribution for fleeing her husband’s house in Oruzgan province, in the center of Afghanistan.

The annual exhibition is displayed each year at about 100 venues in 45 countries all over the world, subject to the stipulation that all prize-winning entries are exhibited without any form of censorship.  This year’s exhibition contains 177 photographs.  The high quality of photojournalism involved is considered to set a standard in the field and is a visual record of the previous year’s events.  This year, 5,691 photographers from 125 countries submitted a total of 108,059 images.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, where it was founded in 1955.  It main aim is to support and promote internationally the work of professional press photographers.  Over the years, World Press Photo has evolved into an independent platform for photojournalism and the free exchange of information.  Educational projects play an important role in World Press Photo’s activities.  Seminars and workshops open to individual photographers, photo agencies and picture editors are organized in developing countries.

This photo exhibit at the United Nations is sponsored by the World Press Photo Foundation and the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations, 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 on the World Press Photo website at www.worldpressphoto.org/downloads.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, please contact Jan Arnesen, tel.: +1 212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann, tel.: +1 212 963 0089, e-mail:  wichmann@un.org; or visit http://visit.un.org.

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For information media • not an official record