Photograph encapsulates Arab Spring

Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award yesterday for an image of a woman holding a wounded relative after a demonstration in Yemen.

Jurors said Aranda’s photo, taken for The New York Times, encapsulated many of the facets of the uprisings across the Middle East which have become known as the Arab Spring.

The photo was taken on Oct 15 in a mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, that was being used as a hospital after demonstrators protesting against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed with government forces.

“The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on,” said chairman Aidan Sullivan. “We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

The tsunami in Japan was another major theme. Japanese photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba took first prize in the People in the News Stories category for Agence France Presse for an April 3 photo of Chieko Matsukawa holding her daughter’s graduation certificate after finding it among the debris in Higashimatsushima, Japan.

57 photographers of 24 nationalities won awards in a field of more than 5,000 professional photographers.