Intimate portrait of Russian gay couple wins World Press Photo
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A photograph of two gay lovers in St Petersburg won the World Press Photo of the Year award, organisers said on Thursday, selecting a picture they said highlighted increasing hardships for homosexuals in Russia.
The photo, in which the two faces are picked out by light in a darkened bedroom, won the contemporary issues category before aking the overall prize, beating more conventional conflict shots that the competition is best known for.
“Life for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people is becoming increasingly difficult in Russia,” Amsterdam-based World Press Photo said in a statement. “Sexual minorities face egal and social discrimination.”
Jury chair Michele McNally, director of photography at The New York Times, said the image was “aesthetically powerful, and it has humanity.”
The photo was taken by Mads Nissen, who was born in 1979, a staff photographer for the Danish daily newspaper Politiken.
Russia came under fire from rights groups last month for anti-gay legislation that refuses driving licences for those with sexual "disorders," including transsexualism and transvestism. In 2013, Moscow introduced a law banning the promotion of "non-traditional sexual orientation" to children.
“Its an historic time for the image,”said McNally
"It sends out a strong message to the world, not just about homosexuality, but about equality, about gender, about being black or white, about all of the issues related to minorities," said Alessia Glaviano, one of the jury chairs.
The jury selected Nissen’s photograph from nearly 98,000 images submitted from 131 countries. Prizes were awarded in eight categories to 42 photographers.
The first prize for a single spot news image went to Bulent Kilic of Turkey for a picture of an injured girl surrounded by police and soaked by water cannons at a protest in Istanbul.
The winning photos will be shown in a worldwide exhibition that opens on April 18 in Amsterdam and then travels to more than 40 countries.
