The Cubanitas by Diana Markosian won the First Prize of the Contemporary Issues. The photo is among 150 single photos that won the 62th World Press Photo contest, are on display to the public at Lê Thái Tổ Square in Hà Nội.

HÀ NỘI — The World Press Photo (WWP) Exhibition 2019 – Stories that Matter was launched in the capital yesterday.

As many as 150 single photos which won the 62th World Press Photo contest featuring multi topics, from migration, war zone to animals in the wild, gender identity were displayed at the exhibition.

The exhibition was co-organised by Hà Nội People’s Committee, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Hà Nội and MatCa Foundation.

Being one of the world’s leading contests for professional press photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers, the event presents the best visual journalism of the year, following last year’s successful exhibition.

Chairman of People’s Committee of Hà Nội Nguyễn Đức Chung, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Việt Nam Elsbeth Akkerman and World Press Photo Foundation representative Sanne Schim-van der Loeff attended the event.

Previously, as many as 4,738 photographers from 129 countries have submitted their entries to the contest.

After being selected and evaluated by the jury panel, 43 photographers from 25 countries including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela have been nominated for the winning prizes.

Among these nominees, 14 photographers are women, taking up to 32 per cent, a significant increase from last year’s competition.

Speaking at the exhibition, Chairman Chung praised the attempts of organisers.

“I highly appreciate the idea of organising this event. I hope in upcoming time, the Embassy will continue to set up more photo journalism and cultural events such as this one in Việt Nam,” he said.  

Meanwhile, ambassador Akkerman said this is a wonderful opportunity for the capital public audience to see with their eyes the perspective of photographers on current issues of the world.

“They are high qualified photos which words cannot describe. Each photo show the true face of the world we live in and makes us think a lot about it. In the world of threats and fake news, the reality of the photos cannot be underestimated,” she said.  

Paul Moakley, editor for Special Projects at TIME and 2019 Photo Contest jury member, said World Press Photo has the tough task of drawing the world’s attention to the stories that matter, each year.

The exhibition, at Lê Thái Tổ Square, lasts until December 15th, when the list of winners will be announced. — VNS