“Crying Girl on the Border” by John Moore. (Getty Images/John Moore)

Migration and refugee issues have once again become the main focus of the 2019 World Press Photo Exhibition tour, which takes place in over 100 cities, including Jakarta.

Organized by the World Press Foundation, the exhibition tour features 140 photographs from 25 photographers worldwide, which are the nominees and winners of the 62nd annual World Press Photo Contest showcasing the best visual journalism over the last year.

With 4,738 photos received by 78,801 photographers worldwide, judging took place from Jan. 12 to 31, before the official nominees were announced on Feb. 20.

The photos were judged on by an independent jury consisting of 17 professional photographers with diverse backgrounds, each of them having specific criteria to determine the winners in each category.

On April 11, the winners of the photo contest were announced during the awards show in Amsterdam, before kicking off with an exhibition at the World Press Photo Festival in the respective country and finally a worldwide tour.

The exhibition in Jakarta is taking place at the Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis in Rasuna Said until Sept. 26.

The most prominent piece in the Erasmus Huis’ exhibition is last year’s World Press Photo of the Year and World Press Photo Story of the Year winners, respectively Crying Girl on the Border by John Moore and The Migrant Caravan by Pieter Ten Hoopen. Both of them were also nominees in the Spot News category.

Moore’s award-winning photo depicts a Honduras toddler, Yanela Sanchez, crying as her mother, Sandra Sanchez, is taken into custody by United States border officials in Texas, the United States. It is a gut-wrenching visual that shows the struggles of immigrants to get into the United States following the country’s “zero tolerance” policy.

“The reason why they chose the World Press Photo of the Year is that the jury said it has to be surprising, iconic and unique. It [has to say] a lot in one shot,” exhibition coordinator Susan van den Berg said.

She also mentioned how the small details portrayed in the photo were considered as the highlights, such as the removed shoelaces from Yanela and Sandra’s shoes, the blue gloves worn by the officer and the gender of the officer. Focusing on Yanela’s crying face, it is also a photo that tends to evoke upsetting emotions.

“Other things that are very interesting are the details because you don’t see the mother and the police officer, so you don’t know whether it’s a man or a woman, and you see the girl crying which is very emotional when people see it,” explained van den Berg.

On the other hand, Hoopen’s “The Migrant Caravan” illustrates several immigrants from Central America heading to the US border to live better lives from violence and harsh economic conditions.

Hoopen captures the moments of togetherness through his photos, including a few photos of a family sleeping together in the caravan or taking a rest near a river.

The World Press Photo Story of the Year itself is also a new award given out this year, making Hoopen the first ever winner for this category. Considering how multiple photos are often used instead of one in most articles and newspapers, the award is an acknowledgment of the photo stories that play a huge role nowadays.

Similar to Moore and Hoopen’s works, immigrants are the main subjects in most of the other photos being exhibited, making the topic of migration and refugee the specific themes dominating this year’s exhibition.

“I must say that the migration and refugee theme was dominant in the last four to five years, so we see this theme every year, but we see it in a different point of view and this year it’s shown from the US border versus the Mexican border,” said van den Berg.

Other examples include Climbing the Border Fence by Pedro Pardo and Afghan Refugees Waiting to Cross the Iranian Border by Enayat Asadi.

Comprehensively, most of the photos portray issues of middle and lower class people, radiating raw actions and emotions as they were taken candidly. The rawness of these photos tend to present explicit content as well, although there are less of them than last year’s exhibition.

“The amount of violence and blood in the images is less compared with last year, while we didn’t change it by purpose,” said Van den Berg.

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

Popular

Great Barrier Reef hit by record bleaching

Govt to undo latest curbs on personal imports

Middle East on edge as Israel and Iran trade threats