World Press Photo 2022. Photo of the Year. Kamloops Residential School. AMBER BRACKEN / THE NEW YORK TIMES
This Thursday we met the winners of the 20222 edition of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Among more than 64.800 photographs and works by 4.066 professionals from 130 countries, 'Kamloops Residential School' by photojournalist Amber Bracken was chosen by the World Press Photo 2022 jury as photograph of the year.
Published in The New York Times, the image recalls the 215 indigenous children whose remains were located in the unidentified graves of a former school residence in Kamloops. This, however, has not been the only winner of this contest. Discover the most important with us!
photography of the year
“It is one of those images that is engraved in your memory and inspires a sensory reaction. I could almost hear the stillness in this photograph, a quiet moment of reckoning with the history of colonization, not just in Canada but around the world." This is how the president of the global jury Rena Effendi referred to 'Kamloops Residential School', the photograph of the year.
The work of the Canadian photojournalist, published in The New York Times, shows some red dresses hung on crosses. A memory of the students of the Residential School of Kamloops, province of British Columbia, whose bodies were located on June 19, 2021 in 215 unidentified graves.
In the institution run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate there were forcibly interned aboriginal children to force their cultural assimilation. There they suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse as part of a “re-education” system.
The author
Amber Bracken by Jason Franson
Amber Bracken is a Canadian photojournalist who explores conflicts of race, culture and decolonization in her work, specializing in those affecting indigenous peoples in North America. Struggles for land rights and the overrepresentation of displaced indigenous peoples are common themes in his reporting.
The photojournalist has already won a first prize World Press Photo in 2017 for 'Contemporary Issues,' a report on the Dakota Access pipeline protests. This second award in 2022 consolidates her as a committed photojournalist.
Other winning photos
In the category of Graphic Report of the Year, the award went to 'Saving Forest with fire', the work of Australian photojournalist Matthew Abbott published in National Geographic. The report vindicates an ancient and cultural practice of indigenous Australians, specifically the Nawarddeken people of the Western Arnhem region. These strategically burn the land in a practice known as cold burning, to save the forests from possible fires.
Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott | Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida
The Brazilian photojournalist Lalo de Almeida has been the winner of the Long Term Project Award. His photographic work "portrays something that not only has negative effects on the local community, but also on the whole world," Effendi noted. Almeida's images seek to denounce the great threat that the Amazon Rainforest suffers due to deforestation, mining, infrastructure development and the exploitation of natural resources.
The Open Format Award Its author is the photojournalist Isadora Romero. Her photographic documentary questions through personal stories the disappearance of seeds, forced migration, colonization and the subsequent loss of ancestral knowledge. The video is narrated by the photographer and her father and is made up of digital and analog photographs taken on 35mm film.
Blood is a seed by Isadora Romero | Evia Island Wildfire by Konstantinos sakalidis
The best photography in Europe
Among the winners we also wanted to highlight Evia Island Wildfire by Konstantinos sakalidis. This photography, winner in Europe of the Single award, portrays Panayiota Kritsiopi in full cry as she sees how the fire approaches her house in the village of Gouves, on the island of Evia, Greece.
Discover the winning photographs and the stories behind each of them on the contest website World Press Photo 2022.