Status: 03/24/2022 3:15 p.m
A woman standing in shock in front of her house, which is threatened by devastating forest fires on the Greek island of Evia: The photo of this scene has been awarded the best European press photo of 2021.
Photos of devastating forest fires and the crisis in Ukraine have been recognized as the best press photos in Europe in the renowned World Press Photo competition. This was announced by the jury in Amsterdam.
For the first time, the selection was made according to new rules: the prizes were awarded for regions. A regional and a global jury decided on the best press photos in six regions in several categories. The global winners will be determined from the regional winners. These will be announced on April 7th. More than 4,000 photographers from 130 countries took part with a total of almost 65,000 photos.
Ukraine conflict before the outbreak of war
Konstantinos Tsakalidis took the best single picture from Europe for Bloomberg News. It shows the devastating forest fires on the Greek island of Evia in the summer of 2021. Forest fires are also the subject of Nanna Heitmann’s award-winning series in the “Stories” category for Magnum Photos, shot in Siberia.
The Ukraine conflict before the outbreak of war is the subject of a series in the “Long-term Projects” category. The French photographer Guillaume Herbaut from the VU’ agency won first prize. It shows tensions in Ukraine from 2013 to 2021, as well as the Russian occupation of Crimea and the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Jonas Bendiksen’s project “The Book of Veles” about fake news from the North Macedonian city of Veles won first prize in the “Open Format” category.