World Press Photo 2022. Photo of the Year. Kamloops Residential School. AMBER BRACKEN / THE NEW YORK TIMES
This Thursday, the winners of the 2022 World Press Photo contest were announced . From over 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 20222 jury as the photograph of the year.
Published in The New York Times, the image is reminiscent of the 215 Indigenous children whose remains were found in unmarked graves at a former school residence in Kamloops. This, however, was not the only winner of this contest. Discover the most important ones with us!
photography of the year
“It’s one of those images that stays with you and inspires a sensory reaction . I could almost hear the tranquility in this photograph, a quiet moment of reckoning with the history of colonization, not just in Canada but around the world.” This is how global jury chair Rena Effendi described 'Kamloops Residential School', the photograph of the year.
The work of the Canadian photojournalist, published in The New York Times, shows red dresses hanging on crosses . A memorial to the students of the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, whose bodies were found on June 19, 2021, in 215 unmarked graves.
At the institution run by the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, Indigenous children were forcibly interned 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 whose work explores conflicts of race, culture, and decolonization, specializing in those affecting Indigenous peoples in North America. Struggles for land rights and the overrepresentation of displaced Indigenous peoples are recurring themes in her reporting.
The photojournalist already won a World Press Photo first prize in 2017 for 'Contemporary Issues', a report on the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. This second prize in 2022 further establishes her as a committed photojournalist.
Other winning photos
In the Photojournalism of the Year category , the award went to 'Saving Forest with Fire,' the work of Australian photojournalist Matthew Abbott, published in National Geographic. The report highlights an ancient cultural practice of Indigenous Australians, specifically the Nawarddeken people of the Western Arnhem region. They strategically burn the land in a practice known as cold burning to save forests from potential wildfires.
Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott | Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida
Brazilian photojournalist Lalo de Almeida has won the Long-Term Project Award. His photographic work “portrays something that not only has negative effects on the local community, but also on the entire world,” Effendi emphasized. Almeida’s images seek to denounce the great threat facing the Amazon Rainforest due to deforestation, mining, infrastructure development, and the exploitation of natural resources.
The Open Format Award goes to photojournalist Isadora Romero. Her photographic documentary uses personal stories to explore the disappearance of seeds, forced migration, colonization, and the subsequent loss of ancestral knowledge. The video, narrated by the photographer and her father, is composed of digital and analog photographs shot 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 Konstantinos Sakalidis's "Evia Island Wildfire." This photograph, winner of the Single Award in Europe, portrays Panayiota Kritsiopi screaming as he watches the fire approach his home in the village of Gouves, on the island of Evia, Greece.
Discover the winning photographs and the stories behind each one on the World Press Photo 2022 competition website.