Sudan Revolution Photo Wins World Press Photo of the Year Award

A picture titled “Straight Voice” taken by AFP photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba from Sudan’s revolution last year has won the World Press Photo of the Year Award.

The World Press Foundation announced the winners of the 63rd edition of the annual Photo Contest and 10th Digital Storytelling Contest on 16 April 2020. Due the restrictions imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, photographers will not travel to Amsterdam to receive their awards.

“This moment was the only peaceful group protest I encountered during my stay. I felt their undefeated solidarity like burning embers that remain to flare up again.” – Yasuyoshi Chiba, World Press Photo of the Year winner. Learn more about the image: https://t.co/j7Jiur7KJC pic.twitter.com/ubB0clGn7y

— World Press Photo (@WorldPressPhoto) April 16, 2020

Chiba wins the prestigious photo award with a picture of a young Sudanese man, illuminated by mobile phones, reciting protest poetry while demonstrators chant slogans calling for civilian rule, during a blackout in Khartoum, Sudan on 19 June 2019. The winners were chosen by an independent jury that reviewed more than 73,996 photographs entered by 4,282 photographers from 125 countries. According to the judges, Chiba’s picture showed the power of youth and art, describing it as “poetic”.

Talking about the picture, Chiba told World Press Foundation,

‘The place was a total blackout. Then, unexpectedly, people started clapping hands in the dark. People held up mobile phones to illuminate a young man in the center. He recited a famous protest poem, an improvised one. Between his breath, everybody shouted ‘thawra’, the word revolution in Arabic. His facial expression and voice impressed me, I couldn’t stop focusing on him and captured the moment.’

The Sudanese revolution began in December 2018, where millions of Sudanese people took the streets for several months, calling for the downfall of former Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and regime. He was deposed in a military coup d’état on 11 April 2019, which brought a military-civilian interm government into power, led by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, to rule the country until elections take place in 2022.

Currently Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Japanese photographer Chiba is a Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) Chief Photographer for East Africa and Indian Ocean. As a freelance photographer, he moved to Kenya in 2007, and then joined AFP in Brazil in 2011.

Organised annually by the World Press Photo Foundation since 1955, the World Press Photo Contest recognises professional photographers for the best pictures contributing to the past year of visual journalism. Other winners include: World Press Photo Story of the Year: Kho, the Genesis of a Revolt by Romain Laurendeau (France); World Press Photo Interactive of the Year: Battleground PolyU by DJ Clark/China Daily; and World Press Photo Online Video of the Year: Scenes From a Dry City by Francois Verster/Simon Wood/Field of Vision.

Congratulations to the #WPPh2020 World Press Photo Contest and Digital Storytelling Contest winners! Discover the stories that matter, chosen by an independent jury: https://t.co/mgO5DfIq5E pic.twitter.com/XBU9i3FG3Y

— World Press Photo (@WorldPressPhoto) April 16, 2020

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