VII Network photographers, Gardi, Lowy, win WP Awards

Many congrats to Balazs and Ben on winning 4 prizes in the World Press Photo 2008 contest. Balazs Gardi and Benjamin Lowy each won two prizes.

Balazs Gardi won in the General News / 1st Prize Singles category for a black-and-white image of a bearded Afghan man holding a young boy wounded by shrapnel from a U.S. airstrike (see link). He also won in the General News / 1st Prize Stories category for his story titled ‘Operation Rock Avalanche,’ about a U.S. military operation in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, one of the deadliest pieces of terrain for U.S. forces.

Ben Lowy won in the Daily Life / 2nd Prize Singles category for his picture of a market in Kabul, Afghanistan (see link). He also won in the Portraits / 2nd Prize Stories for a series of images of blindfolded Iraqi detainees.

Operation Rock Avalanche (by Balazs Gardi)

http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=661

Afghanistan – Year 6 (by Ben Lowy)

http://www.viiphoto.com/showstory.php?nID=665

by Frank Evers at Fri Feb 08 17:10:54 UTC 2008 (ed. Mar 12 2008) Venice CA, United States | Bookmark this | Digg this |

if there was one b&w photographer on the planet whose brains i could pick re processing and printing it would mr gardi.he is a maestro extraordinaire.

by Michael Bowring | 08 Feb 2008 17:02 | Belgrade, Serbia |

Yeah – Gardi really really deserved this price!!!Both prices!
And especially after Newsweek wrong caption of his 1st Prize Singles category photo..
He did awesome job in Afganistan! It just prove how just his passion of capturing this area lead him to such award.. Nevertheless he is freelance.

Frank, u should take him as Vii member asap. :)

by Maja Hitij | 08 Feb 2008 19:02 | Ljubljana, Slovenia |

Congratulations for such fine work coming from the VII agency!

Truly leading the world in photojournalism!

by lisa hogben | 09 Feb 2008 03:02 | sydney, Australia |

Meet me…

I am the WPP winner for the coming year…

Just became a camera owner and got a pirated CD of photoshop in my bag. And you bet… I am the WPP winner the coming year.

Well… most of the single images at the WPP this year left lot to be desired. Are they strong single images or those that can just be “part” of a story?

The stories looked a little better… but hey… I forgot the use of photoshop here… in a lot of them…

The WPP-Pic of the Year is far from one telling image.

The only one that told something in RECENT years and was strong enough to fit in that category was the winner in 2004 (I think the guy was from Reuters). Reuters the British Agency? where is it missing this year?

Welcome to the WPP awards for commercial photo-shopped photojournalism…

And I do fit in here…

by Camera Owner | 09 Feb 2008 20:02 | Amsterdam, Netherlands |

big big contrats! :)))…I love Balazs’s story and his astonishing Afghanistan Pieta single pic very very much! :))…

NOW (!!!) how about, (like now), membership into that club for that boy?!!!! :)))

cheers
b

by Bob Black | 11 Feb 2008 13:02 (ed. Feb 11 2008) | toronto, Canada |

I agree with Bob, it is a male Afghan Pieta and I think it will become an iconic image!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…

by lisa hogben | 11 Feb 2008 13:02 | sydney, Australia |

Congratulations all!

And may all awards, grants, scolarships etc. be open to ALL regardless of age, sex, belief, education, tribe, economic or social position – including the one named after an incredible female photographer: Alexandra Boulat.

Thanks,
Jenny

by Jenny Lynn Walker | 11 Feb 2008 15:02 | Zanzibar, Tanzania |