The Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf won the photo prize of the year of the World Press Photo for an image of a 9 -year -old boy from Gaza who lost both arms in an Israeli attack in March 2024 and was evacuated to Doha to receive treatment.
As announced by the Foundation of the World Press Photo, based in Amsterdam, Abu Elouf, which was also evacuated to the capital Qatari, managed to capture for the New York Times the photo of the year, which shows the human cost of war and the importance of journalism to tell stories such as Mahmoud Ajjour, the child who stars in the photograph.
The photograph was taken in Qatar, where Abu Elouf and Mahmoud share the same apartment complex with the few gazaties who have managed to leave to receive medical treatment to wounds caused by bombing and explosions.
The 9 -year -old was seriously injured while fleeing an Israeli attack in Gaza, which led to the amputation of his two arms.
“After returning to urge his family to move on, an explosion took an arm and mutilated the other,” explained the Foundation, who stressed that “Mahmoud’s dream is simple: he wants to get prostheses and live his life like any other child.”
Already in December 2024, Gaza had the largest number of amputated children ‘per capita’ in the world, according to the UN.
This edition of the contest coincides with the 70th anniversary of the World Press Photo and its executive director, Joumana El Zein Khoury, stressed that “when looking at the file”, there are “too many images” such as Mahmoud’s.
“I am eternally grateful to photographers who, despite personal risks and emotional cost, record these stories to give us all the opportunity to understand, empathize and inspire us to act,” he said.
Two finalists were also selected.
One is titled “Night Crossing”, in which John Moore tries to show how a group of Chinese migrants try to get hot under cold rainfall, California, after crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.
“This image, intimate and almost from another world, shows the complexities of migration on the border, often simplified and politicized in American public discourse,” said the Foundation.
The second finalist image is from the Mexican Musuk Nolte (Panos Pictures, Bertha Foundation), author of “Sequías in the Amazon”, which shows the effects of climate change along a river that survives extremely low water levels.
The photograph shows a young man who carries food to his mother in the town of Manacapuru, formerly accessible in boat, but to which, due to drought, now he agrees after walking 2 kilometers through the dry bed of the river. The contrast between dry, almost desert scenes, in the largest jungle in the world makes the lack of water feel even more intensely.
The award -winning photographs will be exhibited in more than 60 places in the world as part of the annual itinerant of World Press Photo.
The three key issues that define the 2025 edition are conflict, migration and climate change.
This year, the winners were selected from 59,320 photos of 3,778 photographers from 141 countries.
With EFE information
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