World’s best press photos on show in Auckland

Rotary Club of Auckland Presentation
World Press Photo Exhibition
Smith & Caugheys, Queen St, Auckland
Until July 24

The World Press Photo Exhibition opened this week at Auckland’s Smith and Caughey bringing together an extraordinary collection of the world’s best press images of 2015, which offers a striking perspective of the world we live in.

The exhibition presents the  winners in single images and stories for 2015 across seven categories which include: contemporary issues, daily life, general news, long-term projects, nature, people, sports and spot news. From Amsterdam to Kyoto, Santiago to Tel Aviv, the exhibition will show in 100 cities and 45 countries, reaching a global audience of four million people each year.

Illuminating the major news stories and issues of 2015, the general news category is dominated by photos from the forefront of the refugee crisis. This global issue is captured in moments depicting refugees arriving in Europe via boat and foot, groups blocked at the borders, crammed into trains and clashing with police. Other world events captured include images from the war in Syria, the Paris attacks in January and November, the devastating earthquake in Nepal and the clashes in the United States set off by police shootings.

The winning work of the whole exhibition is a blurry black and white image by Warren Richardson capturing the moment a child is passed through a barbed wire fence somewhere on the Syrian border. It is an image that captures a century of black and white images of war and human agony.

Also featuring refugees from the Syrian conflict is Segey Ponomarev’s image of a boat crammed with people being hauled to shore by a group of men, the leading figure seeming to be undertaking a herculean task.

Another image by Dario Mitidieri combines the comic and the tragic, with his image of a group of refugees posing incongruously before a studio set-up in a refugee camp. Beside the group of women is an empty chair representing an absent family member

There is a chilling image by Niclas Hammarstrom of a dead man lying in a huge slick of blood, one of many killed in the  gang wars of Rio de Janeiro. Close by his body a couple of soldiers stand impassively.

Documenting less harrowing events are nature photographs such as Anuar Patjane Floriuk’s image of whales surrounded by divers and photographers and there is an impressive photo taken by Rohan Kelly of a huge tsunami-like cloud spilling over the beach at Bondi.

In the sports section, there are a series of works about wrestlers in Dakar by Christian Bobst with one work looking like a film set with the competitors and audience in what could be a huge posed photograph.

The exhibition is a reminder of the horrific, the joyous and the dramatic events that happen each day in the world. It is a chance to  meditate on, be entertained by and learn about the world and its peoples.

Tune into NBR Radio’s Sunday Business with Andrew Patterson on Sunday morning, for analysis and feature-length interviews.