In a growing concern, even anguish, over the climate emergency, indigenous communities and their struggle to preserve the land they live on have become the protagonists of the World Press Photo 2022 contest. The impact of covid among the winning photographs has faded, and it was still too early for the war in Ukraine to dominate them, one of the many that occur, as this contest always reminds us. Against this backdrop, the exhibition that visually summarizes the world each year returns, thanks to the Photographic Social Vision foundation, to the Centre de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona (CCCB), where it can be visited from this Friday until December 11.
An example of the omnipresent indigenous struggle in the World Press Photo 2022 is brought by Brazilian photographer Lalo de Almeida, winner of this edition's Long-Term Project award. De Almeida, who has traveled to Barcelona these days, has portrayed the process of destruction of the Brazilian Amazon, accelerated with the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro's government. The work begins in 2013 with the construction of the Belomonte hydroelectric plant, an open wound in the middle of nature. In the exhibition, the serene image of the already built plant is projected as the nucleus from which the rest of the portraits are configured. Among them, a group of indigenous people who managed to stop the development of a second plant. They dress traditionally, but carry conventional suitcases, about to catch a plane. Indigenous resistance is present beyond Brazil and is portrayed in Canada, with Amber Bracken humanizing children's graves; in Egypt, with Rehab Eldalil dignifying the Bedouins, or in Mexico, with Yael Martínez scratching at the trauma and violence caused by the opium business.
The climate emergency is always very evident in the daily lives of these communities, but in the World Press Photo, the planet's countdown goes further. Fire, converted into the backbone element, creeps into images like the now universal one by Konstantinos Tsakalidis during the fire on the island of Euboea, summarized by the cry of a woman who has lost her home and knows it won't be the only thing. Desolation also reaches Indonesia, with the smoke of Abriansyah Liberto, or even Siberia, with the toxic beach of Nanna Heitmann.
In addition to indigenous communities and the climate emergency, the pandemic appears in some photographic series, although very timidly. One of them is charming and funny, featuring Antonella and the very long hair she decided not to cut until she returned to school and left online classes behind. Irina Werning has immortalized this Argentine student's promise, kept for almost 300 days. She has also shown the conclusion, with the young woman's new look.
The war in Ukraine is also slightly present in the World Press Photo 2022. This edition of the contest, whose call for entries closed in early January, shows the precedents. Guillaume Herbaut presents a broad retrospective made between 2013 and 2021, capturing the tensions that have occurred between the eastern and western regions of the country. The competition does not forget, as the West has done, Afghanistan, forgotten since the armed conflict reached Europe, with a series made by Bram Janssen about a cinema in Kabul. Fatima Shbair also highlights the attacks in Gaza, with Palestinian children trying to rest during a ceasefire surrounded by destruction.
However, the local perspective, already present last year with confined photographers, has been further strengthened with the new World Press Photo format, which has been divided into six regions to ensure greater representation and diversity of authors and stories, after the traditional preeminence of images made from Europe and the United States in a competition created in the Netherlands. Specifically, in 2021, only 7% of participants came from South America; 5% from Southeast Asia and Oceania, and 3% from Africa. This year, out of 24 winners, 19 have achieved it with stories made in their own country.
Likewise, thematic categories have been eliminated, focusing instead on formats, with individual photographs, photo essays, long-term projects, and, the big novelty, the open format, allowing the manipulation of photographs and bringing the competition closer to artistic creation. The most significant example of this new category is the work of Jonas Bendiksen, centered on the city of Veles, in North Macedonia, which has become the global epicenter of fake news production. Although it may be hard to see, the photographer has also entered the game, deceiving the viewer with images created by artificial intelligence.
These are some of the photographs that can be seen until December 11 at the CCCB in the World Press Photo exhibition:
1. Kamloops Residential School by Amber Bracken for The New York Times. World Press Photo of the Year Award.
2. Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida for Folha de São Paulo/Panos Pictures. Series awarded the World Press Photo for Long-Term Project.
3. The Flower of Time: Guerrero's Red Mountain by Yael Martínez for Magnum Photos.
4. Evia Island Wildfire by Konstantinos Tsakalidis for Bloomberg News.
5. Afraid to go to School by Sodiq Adelakun Adekola for Agence-France Presse.
6. The Promise by Irina Werning for Pulitzer Center.
7. Political Year Zero by Louie Palu.
8. Ukraine Crisis by Guillaume Herbaut for Agence VU'.
9. The Cinema of Kabul by Bram Janssen for The Associated Press.
10. The Book of Veles by Jonas Bendiksen.