No Borders To Frame

No Borders To Frame

The world is full of stories, and we don’t have time to hear them all as we live our own, not in any nuance at least. Events like the 2019 World Press Photo Contest can at least draw our attention for a brief moment on these deeply personal events.

This year, the 2019 World Press Photo Contest drew thousands of photographers 4,738 from 129 of countries across the globe, with an astonishing submission of 78,801 images.

Sifting through the entries, judges found ‘Crying Girl on the Border’ by photographer John Moore as the overall award winner of World Press Photo of the Year. Moore is a senior staff photographer and special correspondent for Getty Images. Moore’s photograph, which also won First Prize in the Spot News category, shows Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez crying as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in Texas, USA on 12 June 2018. The pair had travelled for a month through Central America and Mexico before reaching the US to seek asylum. This image, despite not being entirely related to the fallout of Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy, lead to the bill being repealed a little over a year after the image was captured.

Pictures have power to encourage change. May every photo make us better.

The best in photo journalism from across the world returns to Auckland once again in the prestigious World Press Photo Exhibition at Auckland’s Smith and Caughey’s Level 6 Gallery Space, Queen Street from Saturday 29th June to Sunday 28th July 2019 thanks to the Rotary Club of Auckland.

The Lake Chad Crisis, Marco Gualazzini, Ghosts of Guano Islands: A humanitarian crisis is underway in the Chad Basin, caused by a complex combination of political conflict and environmental factors. Lake Chad—once one of Africa’s largest lakes and a lifeline to 40 million people—is experiencing massive desertification. As a result of unplanned irrigation, extended drought, deforestation and resource mismanagement, the size of the lake has decreased by 90 percent over the past 60 years. Traditional livelihoods such as fishing have withered, and water shortages are causing conflict between farmers and cattle herders. Jihadist group Boko Haram, which is active in the area, both benefits from the hardship and widespread hunger and contributes to it. The group uses local villages as a recruiting ground, and the protracted conflict has uprooted 2.5 million people, exacerbating food insecurity. Almajiri is gotten from an Arabic word “Al-Muhajirun” which can be translated to mean a person who leaves his home in search of Islamic knowledge. A severe humanitarian crisis is under way in the Lake Chad basin. Over two million refugees, five million people at risk of food insecurity and 500,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition. Lake Chad has fallen victim to the process of desertification that is threatening the very existence of the peoples who live on its banks and the ecosystem of its waters. Once the fourth-largest lake in Africa, since the 1950s its surface has shrunk by 90%.
Crying Girl on the Border, John Moore, Getty Images: Honduran toddler Yanela Sanchez cries as she and her mother, Sandra Sanchez, are taken into custody by US border officials in McAllen, Texas, USA, on 12 June 2018.
Akashinga – the Brave Ones, Brent Stirton, Getty Images:
Akashinga (‘The Brave Ones’) is a ranger force established as an alternative conservation model. It aims to work with, rather than against local populations, for the long-term benefits of their communities and the environment. Akashinga comprises of women from disadvantaged backgrounds, empowering them, offering jobs, and helping local people to benefit directly from the preservation of wildlife. Other strategies—such as using fees from trophy hunting to fund conservation—have been criticized for imposing solutions from the outside and excluding the needs of local people.
Colombia, (Re)Birth, Catalina Martin-Chico, Panos: Since the signing of a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC rebel movement in 2016, there has been a baby boom among former female guerrillas, many living in the demobilization camps set up to help FARC members in the transition back to everyday life. Pregnancy was thought incompatible with guerrilla life. Women were obliged to put war before children, leaving babies with relatives or, some say, undergoing forced abortions—a charge FARC denies. Dayana sÕapprte ˆ retourner au camp de Colinas pour rŽcupŽrer les affaires quÕils y ont laissŽes. Dans la jungle, rares Žtaient les moments o elle pouvait sÕoccuper dÕelle. Ç On changeait de lieu tous les deux ou trois jours. Tout Žtait pliŽ chaque matin et dŽpliŽ chaque soir. Ni lit ni matelas, juste des feuilles de palmier. On portait parfois 50 kilos. Je mÕen suis bien sortie, je nÕai reu quÕune balle dans la jambe È, me confie-t-elle.
Fighting Ebola and Conflict, John Wessels, Agence France-Presse: A health worker waits to handle an unconfirmed case of Ebola at a newly built treatment centre in Bunia, 200 km north of Beni, DRC, on 7 November 2018.
State of Decay, Alejandro Cegarra: A demonstrator puts a rosary over his head before clashing with the Bolivarian National Guard during anti-government protests in Caracas, Venezuela, on 14 March 2014.
Brent Stirton, CENTRAL MONGOLIA: A wild Saker Falcon mother and her chicks high over the steppe of Central Mongolia. The Saker falcon is the only species in the genus Falco with an endangered listing in the IUCN red list, because a population trend analysis has indicated that it may be undergoing a very rapid decline, particularly in Central Asia, with unsustainable capture for the falcon trade considered to be one of the causal factors. Electrocution via power lines is a larger issue, killing millions of birds every year.
Wild Pumas of Patagonia, Ingo Arndt, for National Geographic: Pumas, also known as mountain lions or cougars, are found from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes, the widest range of any large wild mammal in the Western Hemisphere. They can survive in a variety of habitats, from deserts and prairies to forests and snowy mountains, but are generally shy and elusive to humans. The Torres del Paine region in Chilean Patagonia is thought to contain higher concentrations of pumas than anywhere else in the world. Pumas are ambush predators, stalking their prey from a distance for an hour or more before attacking. In Torres del Paine, pumas feed mainly on guanacos, which are closely related to llamas.
Never Saw Him Cry, Michael Hanke: Zdenĕk Šafránek is the captain of the Czech Republic Para Ice Hockey team, and has participated in three Paralympic Games. He has been in a wheelchair since an accident at work in an auto repair shop in 2003. He also represents his country in mountain biking and handcycling, and in 2017–18 was the Czech Republic’s champion paraboxer. Šafránek lives in the town of Pátek, near Podĕbrady, in the Czech Republic, with his partner and three children.

Jamie Trower

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