For the 25th time, UNICEF Germany has awarded prizes for photos and photo reportages documenting the living conditions of children worldwide.
“High-quality documentary photography can open people’s eyes,” said Georg Graf Waldersee, chairman of UNICEF Germany, on the website of the United Nations Children’s Fund. “Each year, the winning photos from the UNICEF photo contest do exactly that: they open our eyes to the predicaments of children all around the world.”
‘Shock, pain and grief have many faces’
Eight-year-old Israeli Stav must have seen terrible things. He survived the Hamas raid on his kibbutz on October 7, 2023, which abruptly ended his carefree childhood. His face reflects the pain and sense of loss.
Israeli photographer Avishag Shaar-Yashuv portrayed the boy and other children in an emergency shelter after their homes were ravaged. She was awarded first place for her haunting photo reportage, along with a Palestinian photographer.
It’s the first time in the 25-year history of the UNICEF Photo of the Year that the jury has awarded two first prizes. “The Jury of the UNICEF Photo of the Year, acutely aware of the very different numbers of victims in Israel and Gaza, did not presume to establish a ranking of suffering,” states the UNICEF Germany website.
Palestinian children victims of war: Dareen and Kinan
Dareen, 11, and 5-year-old Kinan are finally safe in a hospital in Qatar. The brother and sister are from Gaza; their entire family was killed in an Israeli bombing raid. Their future is uncertain.
Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf, who taught herself how to take pictures with borrowed cameras, has captured many victims of the war in her photos — they have lost arms, legs or their sight. In all her photos, she highlights the dignity of these children, even in dire distress. She was also awarded first place.
A virus advances in Congo
Japhet is just 7 months old. He has been infected with the Mpox virus, better known as “monkeypox.” There is a vaccine against Mpox, but in poorer countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Japhet’s home country, vaccines are in short supply. Children are particularly at risk.
According to the African Union, some 1,000 people have already died from the disease, and many more are infected.
Little Japhet is lucky. His mother took him to a health center, where his pustules were treated with antiseptic medication. The center is also not well-equipped, but Japhet was still better off there than on the mud floor of a hut.
French photojournalist Pascal Maitre was awarded second place for this picture.
Difficult path to life
Gabin is one of 10% of all children worldwide born prematurely, according to a study by the World Health Organization. Every missing week makes their start in life more difficult.
The little boy was born after less than six months in the womb, but has an irrepressible will to survive. French photographer Maylis Rolland captured the touching moment in this hospital in the city of Rennes when Gabin, still wearing a breathing mask, reached for the nose of his mother, Doriane. This photo won third place.
In addition to the first three places, the independent UNICEF jury of experts awarded other photos with honorable mentions, including the following.
An overlooked tragedy in Sudan
One of the biggest humanitarian disasters of our time is rarely making headlines.
According to the United Nations, more than 14 million people in the East African country have been displaced amid the war opposing the Sudanese military and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a conflict that has been raging since 2023.
The conflict has destroyed schools and health centers, while children are being forcibly recruited as soldiers and girls are being raped. Hunger is omnipresent. Around 730,000 children are so severely malnourished that their lives are in danger.
Irish photographer Ivor Prickett, who also works for the United Nations Refugee Agency, captured the misery of the people.
Speaking without words
Milo has suffered from a rare condition since he was 6 years old. At home he babbled away happily, but beyond the safety of his family circle, he couldn’t get a word out.
In medicine, this is called “selective mutism.” His mother, the Canadian-Mexican photographer Patricia Krivanek, gave him a camera so that he could express his feelings in pictures while also jotting down what bothered him.
Krivanek, who took this photo of Milo, eventually helped her son through this therapy.
A childhood without parents
The UN estimates that around 140 million children worldwide have no home, living in orphanages or struggling alone and unprotected on the streets.
Not all of them have had to mourn the loss of their father and mother due to war, epidemics or hunger. Many also come from broken homes where they were exposed to violence and abuse.
Traveling around Latin America and Africa to document the everyday lives of orphans, Italian photographer Valerio Bispuri wants to give a voice to these “invisible” people, who live so unnoticed and forgotten as if they had “never been born.”
Gaining self-confidence through dance in Nigeria
Far from the polished parquet floor of ballet schools and where the average monthly income is around €200 (about $208), there are girls and boys who practice pirouettes and overcome gravity in graceful aerial leaps.
This is the case for instance in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, where some 20 children regularly train under the guidance of their teacher Daniel Ajala in an open backyard, among chickens. It was strange at first for the community living in this poor district, but Ajala wants to give the children a new perspective to life. It helps them, he said, to “stand up, speak up, and defend themselves.”
French photographer Vincent Boisot captured this scene in which a girl hangs out freshly washed tutus to dry.
In thrall of smartphones
The smartphone is omnipresent in children’s rooms, with even toddlers increasingly staring at the device — even though the negative effects on social and communication skills and learning ability have long been scientifically proven.
French photographer Jerome Gence has captured this cellphone mania in pictures. In his photos, people sit together and look at their phones instead of talking to each other. He noted that 50% of French families use their phones during meals.
Some brain researchers have already diagnosed the younger generation with “digital dementia” — not just in France, but worldwide.
This article was originally written in German.
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