Stunning pictures of truth and beauty at World Press Photo exhibition

As the World Press Photo exhibition opens in Ireland, Richard Fitzpatrick talks to some of the winning photographers about their amazing images.

JOHN STANMEYER has enjoyed an interesting beat. He’s renowned for his documentation of social issues in the developing world. His photos have adorned the covers of 18 issues of Time Magazine. He’s covered wars in countries like Afghanistan and Sudan, and for the last decade he’s been working for National Geographic, who commissioned him a couple of years ago to work on its Out of Eden Walk project.

The Out of Eden Walk is a fascinating venture. It’s a seven-year trek across the world – an exercise in “slow journalism”, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek – to trace the earliest footprints of humankind. It began in January 2013. Salopek, who plods along at a walking pace of three miles an hour, will have clocked up 30 million footsteps (or 21,000 miles) by the time he finishes in 2020.