Best News Pictures of 2011: World Press Winners

First Prize: Nature, Singles

Photograph courtesy Jenny E. Ross, World Press Photo

In a desperate search for seabird eggs, a polar bear ventures into steep terrain above the ocean at Ostrova Oranskie, Russia, in June 2011. Marooned by melting sea ice, the bear is seen deprived of its usual prey—seals—in Jenny E. Ross's picture, which was named best single photograph in the "Nature" category.

Writing on the National Geographic News Watch blog in January, Ross said "scientists emphasize that all polar bears throughout the Arctic will ultimately be endangered by loss of their sea-ice habitat if temperature rise continues unabated."

Jury member Joel Sartore said, "Not only was this a beautiful picture in its own right, but it's showing new behavior, driven by climate change, that, as far as we know, had not been photographed before—and it was done very well."

(See more polar bear pictures, from National Geographic magazine.)

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Arts & Entertainment, Stories

Photograph courtesy Rob Hornstra, Sochi Project/World Press Photo

Singer Marika Bajur performs in the Russian resort city of Sochi—host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics—in one of a series of images that took top honors in the "Arts & Entertainment" category.

Sochi restaurants competing for tourist dollars regularly employ live musicians, many of whom Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra documented in "The Sochi Project: Sochi Singers."

According to jury member Sartore, "We just liked the fact that is was a fun look at a culture—kind of a campy look at the bar scene in Sochi. Once in a while we just picked a great image that made us smile."

Published February 15, 2012

Second Prize: Sports, Singles

Photograph courtesy Ray McManus, Sportsfile/World Press Photo

Irish photographer Ray McManus was on hand to capture the rugby action as Old Belvedere battled Blackrock in a driving Dublin rain in February 2011.

"You wouldn't generally know that you have taken a picture like that at the time," McManus told Irish sports website The Score. "You just go and do your work. I think I just got back into the car and transmitted some of the photos back to the office."

Shooting what was later titled "Scrum Half" was just another day's work, he added, but seeing the image honored in the World Press Photo Contest was "probably the best day of my career." (Also see "Gaelic Football, Hurling are Irish Passions.")

Jury member Sartore said, "It has kind of a painting quality to it. It's a common scene and an everyday moment that has a lot of atmosphere and really captures a mood—we were big on mood."

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Daily Life, Singles

Photograph courtesy Damir Sagolj, Reuters/World Press Photo

A portrait of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung appears to be the only thing deemed worthy of electric light in a cluster of Pyongyang buildings pictured in October 2011.

Though Kim died almost two decades ago, North Korea's constitution recognizes him as the nation's "eternal president." His son, Kim Jong Il, ruled the country until his own death in December 2011—not long after Damir Sagolj of Bosnia and Herzegovina had taken this picture.

"We thought this was a very powerful image that made a strong statement on what things are like in North Korea. It's a little slice of daily life, and it looks pretty stark," Sartore said. "It really suggests that, when you have a dictatorship, this is where it leads you—and it's not a good place."

(Watch National Geographic's Inside North Korea free online.)

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Contemporary Issues, Stories

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Sinclair, VII/National Geographic/World Press Photo

Nearly half of all Yemeni women begin married life as child brides—including these girls posing with their husbands outside the mountain village of Hajjah Hajjah in June 2010. Tahani (in pink) married her husband, Majed, at age six. He was 25.

Taken by Stephanie Sinclair on assignment for National Geographic magazine, the picture is part of a series that won the "Contemporary Issues" category. (See more pictures from the child-brides assignment.)

"This image is extremely powerful and a [great] use of photography to try to point out social ills or problems in society and shed a light on a very important issue," Sartore said. "It was done extremely well, and getting this kind of image of these subjects really took a lot of work."

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Portraits, Singles

Photograph courtesy Laerke Posselt, World Press Photo

Iranian-born actress Mellica Mehraban grew up in Denmark but returned to her native country in 2011 to play the villain in the dramatic filmFox Hunting. The government-approved script required the 27-year-old to demonstrate her character's love for the male lead—without ever touching him or telling him her feelings.

Mehraban's expressiveness also shone through in Laerke Posselt's image. "It's a very haunting picture," Sartore said. "Sometimes you can't say why a picture evokes a certain mood or emotion, but to us, this one was the most powerful of all the single-entry portraits that we had."

(Get National Geographic portrait-photography tips.)

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Spot News, Singles

Photograph courtesy Yuri Kozyrev, Noor Images/Time/World Press Photo

Libyan rebels in Ras Lanuf absorb fierce counterpunches from Muammar Gaddafi's regime in this March 2011 picture by Russian photographer Yuri Kozyrev.

"This whole frame is perfectly filled with peak action," Sartore said. "Even the sky has people in it.

"It's a great frame, and the photographer was right there making sure it was composed well, even while those guys were under fire and running for their lives. That showed a lot of bravery and a lot of courage under fire."

Published February 15, 2012

Second Prize: Nature, Stories

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

Carsten Peter's otherworldly image for National Geographic magazine—part of a winning series—depicts divers exploring a massive cave far below Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam. The newly discovered Hang Ken cave is home to the world's biggest cave passage—up to 66 stories tall.

"It's an unknown world," Peter said of the still largely unexplored cave during a lecture at National Geographic's Washington, D.C., headquarters in March.

"I knew these were the biggest passages we know of in the world, so how should I photograph it? How will I light it?" (See more of Peter's pictures of the "infinite" cave.)

Contest jury member Sartore said, "This was an epic story, and we liked the way the photographer put people in the space, so you can see how huge these caves are. It's also a lovely technical job lighting a big underground space that's as dark as dark can be."

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Daily Life, Stories

Photograph courtesy Alejandro Kirchuk, World Press Photo

Marcos (89) leads his wife of 65 years, Monica, into the couple's Buenos Aires living room in one of a series of images examining Alzheimer's disease called "Never Let You Go." Marcos has cared for his wife full-time since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007.

(Related: "Japanese Gardens Calm Alzheimer's Patients.")

"This shows people that you don't have to have some war in a far away land" to win a photo prize, Sartore said.

"There are good stories around us everyday. This is something that happens in our own backyards, thought through well and told with compassion."

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: Nature, Stories

Photograph courtesy Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic/World Press Photo

A female rhinoceros (left)—her horn long since stolen by chainsaw-wielding poachers—meets a male in Tugela Private Game Reserve in South Africa in November 2010. Photographer Brent Stirton captured the image, part of a winning series, while on assignment for the March 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. (See more rhino pictures from the assignment.)

Soaring demand from middle- and upper-class Asians has made rhino horn more valuable than gold—and cost South Africa alone more than 400 rhinos during 2011, according to World Press Photo.

"Brent's pictures were incredible," Sartore said. "He followed the story all the way from seeing rhinos in the field and the effects of poaching there to going into the courts to see horn traffickers at trial. He went all the way to China to watch the consumption of the horns in drinks and powders.

"He really did the work on this story from top to bottom, and it was beautifully executed." (Read more about Africa's rhino "wars" on the Nat Geo news blog.)

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: General News, Singles

Photograph courtesy Alex Majoli, Magnum Photos/World Press Photo

Egyptians react to President Hosni Mubarak's February 10, 2011, announcement that he would not immediately resign, despite widespread protests. The next day Mubarak resigned after three decades as Egypt's leader.

Italian Alex Maoli's image "was a nearly perfect picture of the anger that people were feeling when Mubarak would not step down," Sartore said.

"We loved the fact that it had almost theatrical lighting, soft and off to one side. It was one of our favorites from the entire contest."

(Pictures: Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Damaged in Looting.)

Published February 15, 2012

First Prize: People in the News, Stories

Photograph courtesy Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP/World Press Photo

Chieko Matsukawa pulls a treasure from the ruins of her Higashimatsushima, Japan, home in April 2011—her daughter's certificate of graduation. The earthquake and tsunami that rocked her region on March 11, 2011, cost half a million people their homes and more than 15,000 their lives.

"But this image," part of Yasuyoshi Chiba's "Aftermath of the Tsunami" series, "showed a moment of hope amid all the destruction," Sartore said.

"It kind of shows the human spirit, and we tried to find some moments that spoke to how resilient people are and how they can find little moments of hope or compassion or humor—anything that helps humanity overcome the obstacles that we see in many of these news events."

(Japan Tsunami: 20 Unforgettable Pictures.)

Published February 15, 2012

Next: See more pictures—and go behind the scenes of the National Geographic winners >>

Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP

Published February 15, 2012