Pictures: Best News Photos from 2013 World Photo Press Contest

First Prize: Nature, Singles

Photograph by Christian Ziegler, National Geographic

National Geographic contributing photographer Christian Ziegler shot this stunning close-up of a southern cassowary feeding on fallen fruit from a nearby blue quandong tree in northern Australia. The tall, flightless bird is an endangered species in Australia, where it plays a vital role in rain forest ecosystems by dispersing large seeds across very wide ranges.

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Sports Action, Singles

Photograph courtesy Wei Seng Chen via WPP    

Photographer Wei Seng Chen's winning image captures the action of the Pacu Jawi, a traditional competition between villages in Indonesia's West Sumatra province. To celebrate the harvest, farmers harness bulls or cows and race across muddy rice fields while holding onto the animals' tails.

Contest jury member Bill Frakes commented on this shot: "It's right in your face. Boom! It's explosive action. It's sharp. It's crisp. I've been shooting sports for a long time and I would be very proud to have made that image."

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Staged Portraits, Stories

Photograph courtesy Stephan Vanfleteren, Panos for Mercy Ships, via WPP    

A mass protrudes from Makone Soumaoro's neck as she poses for a photograph taken by Stephan Vanfleteren. Soumaoro, 30, is a housewife with three children who worries that the mass could be a tumor. Guinea is considered one of the least developed countries in the world, with most of its citizens lacking access to affordable health care. Soumaoro, like many others in Guinea, hopes to be aided by the NGO Mercy Ships docked in Guinea's capital, Conakry (map).

Jury member Rena Effendi praised Vanfleteren's approach to the subject: "I can't help noticing the poignant, classic beauty of the people, in spite of all their imperfections. The way he approached the subject of health in Africa from the angle of a staged, studio-lit portrait is respectable. The photographer is being innovative but not exploitative, which is a very fine line."

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Nature, Stories

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic    

National Geographic contributing photographer Paul Nicklen's award-winning shot helps illustrate scientific research about how emperor penguins can double or triple their speed underwater by releasing streams of tiny bubbles from their feathers. This image of a penguin using bubbles to launch itself toward the surface of the sea ice appeared in a November 2012 National Geographic magazine feature about emperor penguins. (Watch a video of Nicklen photographing the penguins.)

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: General News, Singles

Photograph courtesy Rodrigo Abd, Associated Press, via WPP    

An injured woman cries after her home in the northern Syrian city of Idlib (map) was shelled by the Syrian Army during civil conflict in March 2012, killing her husband and two children.

Unlike a lot of the other photographs that won awards, this image, taken by Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd, includes a significant portion of the subject out of focus. Jury member Bill Frakes said the blurriness of the woman's hand bothered him at first, but then: "The more it was on the screen, the more it grew on me. The hand, after awhile, takes you to the eyes ... You want to know exactly what she's thinking."

Published February 22, 2013

Third Prize: General News Stories

Photograph courtesy Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images, via WPP    

One year after a 30-foot tsunami swept through northern Japan, uprooted pine trees remained scattered on a beach in the city of Rikuzentaka (map). The picture, among several others in Daniel Berehulak's photo series "Japan After the Wave," documents the lingering effects of the natural disaster.

"The point that the photographer is making is that this story, while it's no longer a story for the rest of us, is still very much an ongoing story for the people in the villages," jury member Anne Wilkes Tucker said.

"He really covered the range of disruption that still exists."

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Contemporary Issues Stories

Photograph courtesy Maika Elan, Most, via WPP    

Phan Thi Thuy and her partner of one year, Dang Thi Bich Bay, watch TV together after school in Da Nang, Vietnam—a country that has been historically hostile to same-sex relations but is now poised to become the first Asian country to recognize gay marriage.

The image is part of a photo series by Maika Elan titled "The Pink Choice" that took first prize in the contemporary issues category for Elan's ability to both stir the viewers' imagination and engage with her subjects.

"We were all enchanted by this series," jury member Anne Wilkes Tucker said. "They're tender portraits, but some are complicated ... You feel like you've been given access to people, and even a world, that you normally wouldn't have access to, but in a respectful way."

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Spot News, Stories

Photograph by Bernat Armangue, Associated Press    

Smoke clouds Gaza City after an Israeli air strike damages two buildings used by foreign media outlets and Hamas. This image by Associated Press photographer Bernat Armangue, who is based in the Middle East, is part of a series documenting the November 2012 escalation of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (See National Geographic magazine pictures: The underground world of Gaza's tunnel system.)

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize: Contemporary Issues Single

Photograph courtesy Micah Albert via WPP    

A woman who makes her living by picking through trash for recyclable goods at a 30-acre (12-hectare) dump near the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, pauses in the rain to peruse a book she found. (From our blog: "Saving Nairobi's Mothers and Babies.")

"It gives me something else to do in the day besides picking [trash]," she told photojournalist Micah Albert, a freelancer based in California.

Jury member Anne Wilkes Tucker said of Albert's image: "It's heartbreaking and yet it's hopeful. Here is someone whose life is very hard ... but she takes time to stop and read when she finds a book. [She has] that curiosity, that will to learn and to reach out to a wider world than this wasteland she is existing in."

Tucker added that the judges also appreciated the colors captured in the photo. "It looks like a Dutch painting, in terms of the muted but rich colors that are in it."

Published February 22, 2013

Second Prize: People – Staged Portraits Single

Photograph courtesy Stefen Chow for Smithsonian Magazine via WPP    

Taking second prize in the "Staged Portraits Singles" category is Stefen Chow's portrait of artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights in China. Despite being placed under house arrest, Ai continues to use the Internet and forums like Weibo, a microblogging site similar to Twitter, to voice his criticism against authoritarianism and censorship in his country.

"It's a very layered picture," commented jury member Anne Wilkes Tucker. "The Internet is implicit through that cellphone and there is a possibility that he might be taking our picture with the cellphone."

She added that Ai's expression intrigued the judges. "We discussed whether it's a confrontational, resigned, or stoic expression," she said. "He is a man of great courage who has paid a high price."

Published February 22, 2013

Second Prize Spot: News Single

Photograph courtesy Emin Ozmen via WPP    

Syrian opposition fighters in Aleppo torture a suspected government informant in this July 31, 2012, photograph taken by Turkish photojournalist Emin Özmen. The captive was released after 48 hours.

Jury member Anne Wilkes Tucker praised Özmen's ability to gain access to a sensitive situation in order to illustrate the realities of the Syrian conflict. "Most people inflicting torture don't want to be photographed," she said, also noting the image's unique composition. The figures in the photo converge at a focal point—the feet—to form a cross.

Published February 22, 2013

First Prize:Daily Life Stories

Photograph courtesy Fausto Podavini via WPP    

Photographer Fausto Podavini's series offers an intimate look at the challenges of caregiving through the lives of an Italian couple coping with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. In this image, Mirella, 71, helps her husband Luigi dry off after a shower. The couple has been together for 43 years, and Mirella's life is now devoted to assisting Luigi with daily activities.

"When Mirella started to dry her husband, the steam on the mirror started to disappear," Podavini said of the shot. "All of it lasted a moment. Only while I was editing did I understand in that shot, there was all my work."

Published February 22, 2013

See Last Year's Winners

Photograph courtesy Samuel Aranda, Corbis/NYT/World Press Photo

Published February 22, 2013