Image of a crying girl at the border wins 2019 World Press Photo of the Year
Apr 11, 2019
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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The World Press Photo Foundation has announced winners of its 62nd annual World Press Photo of the Year contest and the 9th annual World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest. The finalists were announced back in February, and now the best of the best have been selected to win the prestigious awards.
The winner of the 2019 World Press Photo of the Year is US photographer John Moore with his image Crying Girl on the Border. The photo also won the 1st prize in the Spot News category. Moore is a senior staff photographer and special correspondent for Getty Images. His photo shows a Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez crying as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas, USA, on 12 June 2018.
After it was taken, the photo was published worldwide and quickly went viral. I’m sure you have seen it, and you can read more about it here. US Customs and Border Protection later confirmed that Yanela and her mother hadn’t been among the thousands who had been separated by US officials. Still, the image contributed to a strong public outcry over the controversial practice, which resulted in President Donald Trump reversing the policy on 20 June.
The World Press Photo Story of the Year award was introduced this year to put the spotlight on the stories that matter. This year, photographer Pieter Ten Hoopen (Netherlands/Sweden) wan this award for his series The Migrant Caravan. Hoopen is a member of Agency VU in Paris, as well as the founder of the company Civilian Act in Stockholm, Sweden.
The winning series documents the largest migrant caravan in recent memory, with as many as 7,000 travelers, including at least 2,300 children. The caravan, assembled through a grassroots social media campaign, left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on 12 October, and as word spread drew people from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.
This year’s contest received nearly 80,000 entries from around the globe. The winners were selected among 43 nominated photographers from 25 countries. Other than the overall winners, category winners have also been announced in eight categories:
- Contemporary issues
- Environment
- General news
- Long term projects
- Nature
- Portraits
- Sports
- Spot news
The winners of the major awards and each category in both contests were revealed earlier today at Awards Show in Amsterdam. Now the prize-winning photos will be assembled into a year-long exhibition that visits 45 countries and 100 cities. Overall and category winners received a Golden Eye Award and a diploma at the Awards Show, and the winners of the World Press Photo of the Year and the World Press Photo Story of the Year won a cash prize of 10,000 euros.
Take a look at the category winners (single images) below. You can check out more photos on the World Press Photo website, where you can also learn more about the contest.
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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54 responses to “Image of a crying girl at the border wins 2019 World Press Photo of the Year”
Probably warms Donald’s heart to see this.
You mean because someone subjected their child to this because they wanted to do something illegally.
If you read up on this photo the mom had only put him/ her down to be searched. She picked him right back up. From the reports I read any way.
Cathy Essex-Specht That is correct.
his heart
https://youtu.be/wejt939QXko
https://youtu.be/swtDFqaXy6Y
Well isn’t that interesting…I imagine we will hear silence.
I hope the subject of the photo gets some compensation for this!
I don’t think you could expect to compensate (or even identify) everyone captured in a press shot ever! If you’re referring specifically to this girl’s circumstances, I’d imagine that this image and ones like it did more the affect policy change and a better life for immigrants than even a sizeable payout!
Personally being awarded for capturing someone’s pain, isn’t something I appreciate. Just me I guess.
And not necessarily monetary compensation, but at least some help.
You don’t get compensation for this type of photo
Lol yea right . They going to get nothing
Cynical me wonders if this was posed, as per many other prize winning images
Paul Richards It wasn’t posed, but it also wasn’t what people assumed it to be. The child was with her parents and was only put down so her mother could sign something and the she was picked up again. The little girl was not separated from her family. She, like every other infant, was scared when her mother put her down during a confusing situation.
so not posed but so misleading it should be considered a “lie”… not my idea of an award winning photo.
You have to be kidding me… Oh no a child is crying! Children never cry this is so freaking sad… give me a damn break, if her parents hadn’t of broken a law then she wouldn’t be in that mess to begin with. People need to check their damn feelings and start to wise up…
Barrett Alan Bailey you wouldn’t care even if the child was shot, wouldn’t you?
Barrett Alan Bailey If everything was about logic, people wouldn’t be celebrating art, artists and culture… everything would be transactional… begs the question, what you doing on a photography related page? Don’t you have tons of partisan political pages to rant on?
Oh, that’s a new one: our politics don’t match so you don’t belong on a photography page. Wow, jumped the shark on that one, Bhavin. The truth, as noted many times here, is it’s not even a good photo and the story behind it was fraudulent. But leave it up to the America-bashing globalist to make a sensation out of it. Dope.
Yep no confirmation needed to prove the hypocrisy of the followers of “pro-life” party… no bleeding hearts there, especially if it’s a certain skin color , race… I’ll keep religion out of this, pretty sure that crying baby Loves Jesus.
So you are calling everyone that supports pro-life a racist? Wow you are eaten up with the liberal victim mentality aren’t you? You sure do love to make assumptions and ignorant ones at that. I hope you wise up one day and gain some much needed grey matter.
Barrett Alan Bailey obfuscate it suits you. You’ve learned your talking points well and equally better at regurgitating it ???
Bhavin Shah Well I’m not sure what “obfuscate” means but about your talking points comment, it’s not talking points that I’m keen on, its common sense and logic that interest me, not feelings of compassion for a silly photo of a child crying. It is the weak minded individual who falls for media propaganda like this and it is quite apparent that you have succumb to their devices. Congratulations!
Pretty terrible photo…
Wow, we just hit rock bottom with photography. Really this photo?? ? Great subject, poorly executed..
Another award down the toilette…
A photo used to horribly mislead people so they will support a particular political agenda is certainly not deserving of an award . . . Unless the award comes from an organization that supports the same political agenda. Only then could this ever make any sense.
oh dear !!! Really! How pc!! loads of children cry… I wonder what snowflake judged this competition!
Maggie McCall Children cry, but ask yourself, why was this child crying? Because she didn’t get the toy she wanted? Or because she was scared and her mother was being detained?
Be taken away for sure .I doubt the photographer going to write that as his caption lol I would
Jennifer Willis or may be her mother just put her down while she signed something? or maybe she was cold, Or may be her parents should not have been doing what they were? or may be it was completely set up? This photo is about an agenda to get people thinking….. oh bad mr Trump?
Matt Adam Paas The EU is failing, it citizens are just about in revolt… more like the other way around… we are leaving just in time, while the rest of the ship sinks. take a real look at what is happening and stop believing this rubbish about Children being taken from the parents at the borders of the US and Mexico is it??? This shot is pulling on your heart string and will have been completely set up. And I so very much wish as do the 17.4 Mil citizens do hope the Eu dictatorship kicks us out… I live in hope!!
What a rubbish photo
Award winning for world press photo, people. It is not beautiful, it is nowhere near perfect. But it is photo journalism. This photo went around the world in a matter of minutes and sparked many a debate about the law, immigration, and empathy. It won and rightly so. Man, there are some awful people that follow this page.
Photo journalism should be about seeking the truth, or am I missing something?
As I said in another post, what was captured was not a lie. That is what is happening at the border. This little girl wasn’t taken from her mother, but there are thousands in her place that were. Because of this photo, Trump was pressured to stop the family separation.
The only reason it went around the world in minutes is because you America-bashing leftists were duped into spreading a bad photo based on a lie. They broke the laws. They are not immigrants, they are illegal aliens. Empathy is now flinging out the welcome mat to illegal invaders while Hoovervilles line the streets in most big cities in California. You’re one to talk about awful people.
This photo was billed as a child being taken away from her parents but it wasn’t. The billing was a fraud. These awards mean nothing these days.
https://flic.kr/p/51L1PW
Not from this year, but same difference.
This photo is trash
Simon Pollock no u
After fifity-one years we seem to have learned nothing about the power of a photograph to create a false narrative.
Eddie Adams is quoted by the New York Times as having written, “Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Nguy%E1%BB%85n_V%C4%83n_L%C3%A9m
Interesting . It speaks volumes
Sure, to the extent that it reinforces its conventional interpretation. Scratch the surface to learn more about the full context, both before and after the photo was taken, and the narrative falls apart. Unfortunately, that takes years, (see above), and almost nobody ever does that.
but no truth or facts behind it.
Staged or fake story behind the photo… I have no trust on the people behind this.
It’s not even that good of a picture! Did we really award photo of the year on political message alone? Good job Merica…
hardly a moving subject. children cry at some point no matter what for little or no reason.
The child could have been crying for many reasons…just more “click bait”
Awarding this photo the press photo price of the year is going to fuel Trump and his press hating likes as this is the very definition of fake news … and you give it a price … not a very good photo either and fake story behind it … amazed… absolutely amazed…
Lee Tomkow https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/22/the-crying-honduran-girl-on-the-cover-of-time-was-not-separated-from-her-mother-father-says/
Amazing ? ha
Don’t come illegally . Child suffers greatly . True story .