Word Press Photo 2016 winners on show in Barcelona

Barcelona (CNA).- The Photographic Social Vision Foundation, which is in charge of the creation, production and promotion of photojournalism and documentaries, brings to Barcelona the exhibition ‘World Press Photo 16’, which was launched this Wednesday and will run until the 11^th of December at the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB). In this 12^th edition of the exhibition in Barcelona the 155 pictures that won the last World Press Photo contest will be displayed. 42 photographers, of 21 nationalities, have been awarded, among them, four Spanish photographers: Daniel Ochoa de Olza, with the image ‘La fiesta de las Mayas’ taken at Colmenar Viejo (Madrid); Sebastián Liste, whose work for the ‘New York Times Magazine’ shows the situation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro; and José Baustista and Mikel Aristregi, for their multimedia work ‘Break in’ on the daily lives of children in Cambodia. One of the novelties of this year has been the presence of Lars Boering, director of the event since the end of 2015, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

Boering announced that “in the autumn of 2017 there will be a new contest, different from the traditional photojournalism contest, which will recognise creative documentaries”. “It is necessary to recognise this new genre, but this doesn’t imply the promotion of false photographs”, he explained. Boering went on to state that works such as the photographs of birds by the Catalan photographer Xavi Bou could be awarded in the new contest. His pictures, published in ‘The Guardian’, combine sequential images of birds to create a single image that reveals the shapes of their flight paths.

Regarding the theme of the photographs on display, in this year’s edition there is a predominance of the refugee crisis and the conflict in Syria, but there is also place for photographs of wildlife and natural phenomena. The winning photograph of the 2016 World Press Photo Contest is one of the main attractions of the exhibition. The picture, by Warren Richardson, shows two men passing a baby from one side of a wire fence to the other.

Activities to “complete” the exhibition

The organisers of the event were keen to stress that Barcelona stands out from other cities that hold the World Press Photo exhibition for “completing” the contents of the exhibition with parallel activities, turning it into an “enhanced experience” that generates “debate” around the photographic sector.

This year, for instance, there will be a free screening of works by the winners in the category of feature films, in the Multimedia Contest. The event will be attended by this year’s second prize winners, José Bautista and Mikel Aristregi.

In 2015, 49,000 people visited the exhibition, one of the most seen in the city according to the organisers, a figure that could be exceeded this year.