Note to Correspondents

Best Press Photographs from 2011 to Go on Show in Exhibition

 

At United Nations Headquarters, 15 — 28 August

 

An exhibition of the best press photographs of 2011, selected at the fifty-fifth annual World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam, will open on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters and remain on display until 28 August.

Among the features in the exhibition is the World Press Photo of the Year, an image representing an issue, situation or event of great journalistic importance, and regarded as the photojournalistic encapsulation of 2011.  Selected as the winning picture by an international jury is an entry by Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda, which shows a woman holding her wounded son in her arms inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh during clashes in Sana’a, Yemen, on 15 October 2011.

Prior to the show’s 6 p.m. opening, a panel discussion titled “The Cost of Truth” will be held in the exhibit gallery beginning at 4:30 p.m.  It will focus on safety issues for photojournalists covering war zones and areas of conflict and natural disaster.  All media are invited to participate, and should send an e-mail to nyv-rsvp@minbuza.nl, or call +1 212 519 9609.

The annual exhibition is displayed at about 100 venues in 45 countries around the world, subject to the condition that all prize-winning entries are exhibited without any form of censorship.  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’s exhibition contains 169 photographs.

Organized by the World Press Photo Foundation, the exhibition is endorsed by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Department of Public Information.  World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.  A selection of winning images is available for publication in the press download area on the World Press Photo website, www.worldpressphoto.org/downloads.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where it was founded in 1955.  It is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary photography worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.worldpressphoto.org.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, please contact Renata Morteo at tel. +1 212 963 5455; e-mail:  morteo@un.org; or Liza Wichmann at 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