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The world Press Photo rewarded this year the Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for his portrait of a young Palestinian boy, Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost his two arms in Gaza when he was fled an explosion.
The image had upset the whole world. The photo of a nine -year -old Palestinian boy, who lost his two arms by fleeing an Israeli attack in Gaza, won the first price of the World Press Photo 2025, this Thursday, April 17. The image, captured by Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf for the New York Times, is a portrait of the young Mahmoud Ajjour, evacuated to Doha after an explosion snatched one arm and mutilated the other last year.
“Working on this project was a unique but painful experience,” said Samar Abu Elouf during the awards ceremony in Amsterdam. “Palestinian children paid a heavy price for horrors they have experienced. Mahmoud is one of these children,” added the self -taught photojournalist.
Originally from the city of Gaza, Samar Abu Elouf is the first Palestinian photographer to win the World Press Photo. Evacuated from the enclave in December 2023, the photojournalist paints the portrait of Palestinians injured by the war, installed in Doha. “One of the most difficult things that Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was that when Mahmoud realized that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he told him was: ‘How will I be able to hug you’,” said the photographer.
“It is a silent photo, which however speaks very strongly. She tells the story of a boy, but also of an even wider war that will impact future generations,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo. The jury praised the “strong composition and the attention paid to the light” of the photo, as well as its subject which gives to think, in particular on the future of Mahmoud.
“He wants to live his life like any other child”
The boy now learns to play on his phone, writing and opening doors with his feet. “Mahmoud has a very simple dream: he wants to get prostheses and live his life like any other child,” said the competition organizers in a press release.
The photographer also drew attention to the uncertain fate of her colleague, injured in Israeli strikes on a journalist tent in Khan Younès on April 7. “It is difficult for me to rejoice when one of my best friends photographers in Gaza, Ihab al-Burdini, is injured,” she said, brandishing photos of the hospitalized journalist.
The jury also unveiled the two finalist photos. The first, “droughts in the Amazon”, taken by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures and the Bertha Foundation, shows a man on the bed of a dry river in the Amazon, transporting provisions to a village formerly accessible by boat. The second, “crossing at night” by John Moore for Getty Images, shows Chinese migrants snuggling near a fire during a downpour after crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.
The jury screened 59,320 photographs taken by 3,778 photojournalists to select the 42 award -winning shots.
