Rosa Luzia Lunardi is hugged by nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza, at Viva Bem Care Home, São Paulo, Brazil, August 5, 2020. – Mads Nissen / Politiken / Panos Pictures
A Danish photographer won the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year 2021 on Thursday, for an image of an elderly lady hugging a nurse protected from Covid-19 by plastic in Brazil, a symbol of “hope” in the eyes of the jury.
The shot of Mads Nissen, winner of the main award in the World Press Photo photojournalism competition, immortalizes the first embrace in five months of an 85-year-old resident in a Sao Paulo nursing home in August 2020. Long isolated because of the coronavirus pandemic, she was finally able to hug a nurse with a plastic device. “For me, it’s a story of hope and love in the most difficult times”, underlines its author Mads Nissen, Danish daily photographer. Politiken.
More than 74,000 images had been submitted by some 4,300 photographers around the world and 45 of them had been nominated by the judges, according to the organizers of the Amsterdam-based competition. 20 minutes invites you to discover the main photos awarded this year.