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Australian Warren Richardson wins World Press Photo 2015

Xinhua, February 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian photographer Warren Richardson won the World Press Photo 2015, the World Press Photo foundation in Amsterdam announced on Thursday.

The winning picture, called Hope for a New Life, showed a man passing a baby through the fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border near Horgos, Serbia, and Roszke, Hungary, on Aug. 28, 2015.

The man and child were part of a movement of refugees seeking to cross into Hungary.

"I think it's a very classical photo, and at the same time it's timeless," said Francis Kohn, chair of the general jury, and photo director of Agence France-Presse.

"It portrays a situation, but the way it's done is classic in the greatest sense of the word," said Kohn.

"It's a haunting image," said jury member Huang Wen, director of new media development at Xinhua News Agency, adding "You see the anxiousness and the tension in such a mood which is pretty different from those in-your-face images. It's subtle, and shows the emotion and the real feeling from the deep heart of a father just trying to hand over his baby to the world he was longing to be in. This is really something."

Richardson, a freelance photographer currently based in Budapest, Hungary, explained how he made the picture: "I was exhausted by the time I took the picture. It was around three o'clock in the morning and you can't use a flash while the police are trying to find these people, because I would just give them away. So I had to use the moonlight alone."

The jury of the 59th annual World Press Photo Contest also gave prizes in eight themed categories. The winning photo of Richardson was awarded the first prize in the Spot News category as well.

Zhang Lei from China (Tianjin Daily) won in the category Contemporary Issues, singles, with Haze in China.

Brazilian photographer Mauricio Lima won the category General News, singles, with a photo of an IS fighter treated at a Kurdish hospital. Chinese photographer Chen Jie finished third in this category with his picture Tianjin Explosion, an aerial view of the destruction after the explosion in Tianjin, China.

A total of 82,951 photos were submitted by 5,775 photographers from 128 countries and regions. All winners are invited to the annual awards days, a networking event and celebration of the prizewinners, which takes place in Amsterdam at the end of April this year. Endit