De jury wrote at the time that he was deeply moved because of the way this image evokes emotional reflection in every viewer. “Composed with care and respect, it simultaneously offers a metaphorical and literal insight into unimaginable loss.”
“It urges us to confront our insensitivity to the consequences of human conflict. The statue has multiple layers and represents the loss of a child, the struggle of the Palestinian people and the 31,000 deaths in Palestine. It symbolizes the toll of conflict and makes a statement about the pointlessness of all wars.”
Mohammed Salem took the photo just days after his own wife gave birth. He describes it as a “powerful and sad moment” that reflects the feeling about what is happening in the Gaza Strip. He found Inas crouched on the ground and hugging the child in the morgue of Nasser Hospital, where residents search for missing relatives.
Inas had run to her sister’s house when she heard it had been hit, and then went straight to the morgue.
This story is part of a long-term project by Olwage about dementia.
Based on his own experiences emigrating to Mexico from his native Venezuela in 2017, photographer Alejandro Cegarra started this project in 2018.
The jury believed that this photographer’s own position as a migrant provided a sensitive, people-oriented perspective.
As news media provide their audiences with statistics and maps and international attention wanders to conflicts elsewhere, the photographer has created a website that combines photojournalism with the personal documentary style of a diary. To show the world what it is like to live with war as an everyday phenomenon.
The project, in collaboration with a Ukrainian illustrator and DJ, interweaves photographic images with poetry, audio fragments and music. Click here for all winners.
