Australia – here’s your last chance to catch World Press Photo!
Sydneysiders will once again be treated to the global phenomenon that is the World Press Photo Exhibition, when it returns to its only Sydney venue, the State Library of NSW, from Saturday 12 August. This will be the last chance for Australian audiences to see the popular exhibition’s international on tour.
The World Press Photo Contest recognises outstanding photojournalism that best captures some of the most pressing issues facing the world today, from the climate crisis to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Australian photographer and scientist Chad Ajamian is among this year’s winners — his evocative ‘Australian Floods in Infrared’ series won the 2023 Photo Contest, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Open Format.
Ajamian’s powerful photographs of the flooded Hawkesbury River, taken for NSW DCS Spatial Services, show in a visually striking way how aerial infrared imaging can be used to assist with response and recovery in flood-affected areas. Vegetation is rendered in pinks and reds, contrasting sharply against blues and cyans, which represent water.
The Australian winner will feature alongside the other international winners of the 66th annual World Press Photo Contest, who were chosen from more than 60,448 photographs entered by 3,752 photographers, across 127 countries.
The coveted Photo of the Year went to Evgeniy Maloletka for his confronting image of Iryna Kalinina, an injured 32-year-old pregnant woman being carried from a maternity hospital damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine. Neither Iryna nor her unborn child survived.
The World Press Photo global jury wrote that by “giving the image a platform … the world will stop and acknowledge the intolerable realities of this war and consider the future of Ukraine.”
According to State Librarian John Vallance: “The Library has been the Sydney home of this major international exhibition for over 20 years.
“Our status as one of the country’s leading advocates for the importance of documentary photography will be further enhanced by the opening of a new, permanent photography gallery at the Library in the coming months. We are looking forward to presenting a diverse, continuing offering of historical and contemporary photography by Australia’s broad photographic community,” Dr Vallance said.
Don’t miss seeing World Press Photo Exhibition 2023 at the State Library of NSW, 1 Shakespeare Place Sydney, from 12 August to 10 September 2023. Entry is free.