A year in the life of the world
The Royal Festival Hall plays host to the World Press Photo 2002, the prestigious annual press photography contest. A display of more than 200 award-winning photographs has been edited down from this year's 49,235 entries received from 4,171 photographers representing 123 countries worldwide.
There are nine categories, including spot news, general news, sports, the arts and nature and the environment. The winning selection provides a powerful snapshot of world events during 2001, from life in Pakistan to the twisted towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the battered streets of Ramallah in the Middle East.
Danish photographer Erik Refner provides the overall winning image. The body of a one-year-old boy in a camp in Pakistan being washed and wrapped in preparation for burial by his family of refugees from Northern Afghanistan.
Jeff Mitchell's shocking images of cows, sheep and pigs slaughtered across the UK during last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak offers a visual nod to a major national news event, but a year on from September 11 it is the story of America and Afghanistan that dominates. Even in the World Press Children's Award (selected by an international panel of children) where Norwegian photographer Aleksander Nordahl introduces us to the broadly smiling face of a young Afghani girl dominating the frame as her older, veil-wearing sisters hide behind a doorway.
World Press Photo 2002, from Fri 13 Sep, Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, SE1 (020-7921 0600).
