EMEA News Photo Essay of the Year
Luke Dray
“News photographers are often confronted with important stories that are hard to illustrate. The story of the LGBTQ community in Uganda, with one of the world’s harshest anti-homosexuality laws, was one such story. Luke managed to make a series of varied, engaging and sensitive images of his subjects without revealing their identities and compromising their safety.”
‘Sunday Church Service With Uganda's LGBTQ Christian Community’
Uganda's policymakers have yet to pass the pending anti-gay law that has caused backlash from the international community, with the hardline bill imposing capital and life-imprisonment sentences for gay sex. An LGBTQ-led church, held within a safe house supporting transgender persons, is defying the threats and providing a safe space of worship for Uganda's Christian sexual minorities.
2nd Place
Christopher Furlong
‘Funeral of pope Benedict XVI’
The funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI takes place at St. Peter's Basilica on January 03, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany in 1927. He became Pope Benedict XVI, serving as head of the Catholic Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation, due to ill health, on 28 February 2013. He succeeded Pope John Paul II and was succeeded by the current Pope Francis. He died on 31 December 2022 aged 95 at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City.
3rd Place
Chris McGrath
‘The Cost of War’
As the war in Ukraine surpasses its 20th month the hidden costs of war have surged, hospitals are being repurposed and new rehabilitation centres are opening in cities across the country to deal with the growing numbers of injured soldiers and civilians suffering from physical injuries and psychological trauma. Some of the most severe casualties and wounded come from land mines laid along the 600-mile front line, Russia’s heavy use of land mines has now made Ukraine the most mined country in the world and amputations and injuries from land mines are said to account for approximately 10% of injuries, although Ukraine keeps precise statistics of casualty and wounded secret, recent news reports stated that the country now has more than 19,000 amputees, with some experts saying the figure could be much higher. Many specialised treatment centres have opened and are now using alternative therapies such as dog therapy, electrotherapy, water therapy, horse therapy and speleotherapy to help with physical injuries as well as with issues of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health issues as soldiers grapple with the effects of PTSD. As the war continues many soldiers and medical staff say the country is not prepared for the volume and level of rehabilitation and reintegration programs that will be needed to assist those effected, to return to service or to adapt to civilian life, but even the approximate figures cast a light on the massive human cost of the war and its effects that will be felt for generations.
