By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) –
A black-and-white image of a boy clutching his dead father’s trousers after a devastating earthquake in Iran, taken by Los Angeles-based Armenian photographer Eric Grigorian, won the World Press Photo of the Year 2002 award Friday.
The gripping picture shows the weeping boy squatting in the dirt on the edge of a mass grave, one of many that soldiers were digging for some 500 victims of the June 23, 2002 quake in the northwestern Qazvin province. The quake measured 6.0 magnitude.
Grigorian, 33, took the photo while on assignment for the young New York-based photo agency Polaris Images. He will receive the award and a cash prize of $10,800 in Amsterdam on April 27.
“The boy is holding on to probably the only precious thing he has left. It’s an amazing image,” said jury member Herbert Mabuza of the South African Times, who judged for a second time this year.
The picture, Grigorian’s favorite of those he entered, conveys not only the mourning of an individual, but the coming together of an entire community, said Mabuza, “It is has many layers.”
The prestigious annual World Press Photo competition had a record 53,597 entries for the 2002 prize, taken by 3,913 professional photographers from 118 countries. Prizes were given to 55 photographers whose work was entered into 18 categories, ranging from spot news to daily life.
The winning photographs were selected during a week of viewing by a nine-member panel after a fierce debate. It took several hours to agree on the winning picture.
Their selections will be exhibited around the world and published in book form.
“We looked at pictures from morning through night, sometimes past midnight,” said Mabuza, who initially favored a picture of an Ivory Coast soldier executing a suspected looter. That image, by Georges Gobet of Agence France-Presse, won the spot news stories category.
World Press Photo chairman Michiel Munneke said he called Grigorian Thursday night to tell him the news and that he had responded: “You’re kidding!”
Leading the spot news singles category was Japan’s Tomohisa Kato of Kyodo News with his picture of a North Korean asylum seeker at the gates of the Japanese Consulate in China.
In general news singles, Antonin Kratochvil of the Czech Republic took first prize for a photograph of the Myanmar prison for the New York Times Magazine.
For general news stories, Danish photographer Jan Dagoe won first prize for Magnum Photos/Alexia Foundation for his work from Sierra Leone.
Danes took an impressive five prizes in the 18 categories, keeping up a string of wins in recent years. The photo of the year went to Erik Refner in 2002 and to Claus Bjoern Larsen in 2000, both photographers with the Berlingske Tidende daily newspaper in Copenhagen. Americans won 14 prizes.
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