World Press Photo award goes to Arab Spring shot

PanARMENIAN.Net - Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award on Friday, February 10 for an image of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen, AP reported.

Jurors said Aranda's photo, taken for the New York Times, encapsulated many of the facets of the uprisings across the Middle East collectively known as the "Arab Spring," one of the major news themes of the year.

The photo was taken October 15 in a mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, that was being used as field 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 woman is almost completely concealed under black robes, and she is wearing rubber gloves as she clasps her relative, a thin man whose torso is bare, grimacing in pain.

"It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring," said juror Koyo Kouoh. "But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on, and it shows the role that women played, not only as caregivers, but as active people in the movement."

In all, 57 photographers of 24 nationalities won awards in a field of more than 5,000 professional photographers, who submitted more than 100,000 entries.