Top War Correspondents Photo Award

Photographer Mohammad Al-Shaikh won the Nikon Photo Award of Bayeux Calvados for war correspondents on 11 October 2014 for a series of images taken during anti-regime protest in Bahrain (AFP Photo/Mohammad Al-Shaikh)

Stanmeyer Wins First Prize at World Press Photo Awards

Moonlit Image of Immigrants Trying to Connect to Loved Ones

American photojournalist John Stanmeyer has won first prize in the 2014 World Press Photo awards for his image of African migrants near Djibouti city.

The moonlit image shows men trying to get a phone signal from nearby Somalia.

Jury member Jillian Edelstein said the photo raised issues of technology, globalisation, migration, poverty, desperation, alienation and humanity. (BBC, 14 February)

Stanmeyer shot the winning image while on assignment for the US-based National Geographic, and said that it was an honor to win the prize.

“It connects to all of us,” he told the AFP. “It's just people trying to call loved ones. It could be you, it could be me, it could be any one of us.” (AFP/BBC, 14 February)

The prestigious awards, selected by an expert panel, have been running since 1955.

Photo credit: John Stanmeyer/ World Press Photo/Handout/AFP