WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2022 Montreal until October 2, 2022

Kamloops Residential School by Amber Bracken for The New York Times is the First Prize winner!

FRANÇAIS app de traduction à gauche

World Press Photo presents a more subdued than usual exhibition this year after restrictions due to  Covid quarantines. However the world carried on its forward march of ceaseless drama! 

 Amber Bracken Photo © Lena Ghio , 2022

Amber Bracken  is this year's first prize winner with her fortunate capture of the installation of red dresses at the precise moment the clouds separated, the sky opened and a rainbow appeared. Traditionally these celestial manifestation meant there was a connection with the spiritual world. It would be nice if the spiritual world did hold a place for those human beings the red dresses represent. The Red Dress Project began in 2011 as "an artistic social justice initiative" developed by Jamie Black. The case of the missing aboriginal women is so disturbing. Why the RCMP isn't turning heaven and earth to catch the serial killers roaming freely in Canada is quite puzzling! But I digress. 

In the case of the winning photo, the victims represented by the red dresses are the aboriginal children taken from their homes to be assimilated by Christians of European descent who wanted to take the "savage" out of them. Hundreds of children's bodies resurfaced near Christian boarding schools in the past few years that begs the question: What on Earth did they do to those children?

Amber specified that the crosses in this case symbolized that each child was like a star in the universe and had no reference to religion.

detail of As Frozen Land Burns
by Nana Heitmann

There are many photos depicting the relentless tragedy that is the climate crisis. The image on the right is particularly ominous as the fire appears to begin inside the tree. This fire happened in Sakha, a northern region of the Russian Federation. "By mid-August (2021), more than 17.08 million hectares had been ravaged by fire, according to Greenpeace Russia."

The exhibition as a whole is moving at the soul level. Nature is screaming her pain louder than ever. We must rally and turn this around. 

On the top floor there are more exhibitions. Among them is a retrospective of the First Prize Winners of the last 15 years. It is shocking to see how little we have evolved. 

There are lighter subjects being exposed also. This year creativity is allowed to alter some photojournalistic content but these photos are marked as being part of this category.

Two artists are proposing their photographic studies: Caroline Monnet, spokesperson for this 15th edition, presents Ikwewak (women) and Justine Latour presents her precious study of a very special woman, Claire, in her exposition Claire, 107 years old.

There are three more important topics being explored: 

RADIO-CANADA | LES DÉCRYPTEURS: THE UNDERBELLY OF DISINFORMATION

LA PRESSE | DES IMAGES QUI MARQUENT (IMAGES THAT LEAVE THEIR MARK)

SEEING BEYOND THE HORIZON. TOGETHER: THERAPEUTIC ADVENTURES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH CANCER
For schedule and more information: HERE

LENA GHIO   

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