The international jury of the 54th edition of World Press Photo, presided by David Burnett together with 19 other picture editors, museum curators and photographers have awarded the South African photographer Jodi Bieber as laureate for the photo of the year 2010 and first prize in the “Portrait” category. The photograph was taken for Time Magazine and published in their August 2010 edition. The image portrayed Bibi Aisha, an 18 year-old Afghan girl whose ears and nose had been cut off by her husband. After having fled back to her family house from the abuse, she was captured by the Taliban who handed her over to the justice and left her husband to execute the verdict. Left for dead, she was later saved by the American military. She now lives in the United States.

Jodi Bieber has previously won 8 World Press awards in different categories. She is represented by the Institute of Artist Management and Goodman Gallery. The 54th edition has broken all records after receiving 108,059 images by 5,847 photographers representing 125 nationalities. Among all of the categories, the jury has awarded 56 photographers of 23 nationalities, including a special mention to the 12 picture series of photographs made by the Chilean miners trapped for 69 days in the mine. Abir Abdullah, member of the jury said: “This recognition opens up the possibility of showing citizen journalism, when professional photographers have not had the opportunity to be some place. This is a good example of a photo from a place where a photojournalist could not possibly have been”

In the joint portfolio we’ll find the images from the awarded photographers in each category.

Bernard Perrine