More than words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the World Press Photo exhibition must be worth a million or so, and most of them on par with the best from Shakespeare.

The exhibition returns to Prague's Karolinum this year and runs through Oct. 11.

The overall "photo of the year" winner and the recipient of a 10,000 euro prize was Anthony Suau, whose photo for Time magazine in the United States depicted a police officer with gun drawn executing a home foreclosure in Cleveland, Ohio. There are 60 winners in total, 10 in six different categories. First-prize winners in each of the six categories - people in the news, portrait, daily life, arts and entertainment, sports action, contemporary issues - receive a 1,500 euro prize.

Entries must be submitted by the first week in January to compete for the contest, which encompasses photos coming from professional photographers from the previous year. This year's contest drew 96,268 photos from 124 countries.

The contest is judged by a 15-person jury comprising experts from across the globe who sift through about 100,000 photos during a two-week marathon session each year.

"It is all done anonymously by people in the field with a lot of experience," said Erik De Kruijf, based at World Press Photo's Amsterdam headquarters. "We really look at a lot of things when selecting the jury. We have a special matrix."

By late spring, there is an official awards ceremony, and the exhibition opens at Amsterdam's Oude Kerk - a cathedral in the Red Light District - and on from there it shows in 100 cities worldwide. The catalog accompanying the exhibition is printed in six languages.

World Press Photo itself was founded in 1955; the first winner was a picture of a motocross racer tumbling off his motorcycle midrace. By the 1980s, the contest had grown in size and scope to the point of needing a full-time professional staff and corporate sponsorship. Starting in 1990, the organization began holding trainings and seminars for photojournalists.   

"It really has become quite prestigious, and the awards ceremony has turned into quite a big deal," De Kruijf said.

But the pictures tell the real story.  

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com