Samuel Aranda wins world press photo of the year

Samuel Aranda has won the 2011 world press photo of the year competition for his image of a woman holding her wounded son in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen. Taken with a mosque acting as a temporary field hospital, it conveys a startling degree of emotion in spite of both subject’s faces being obscured.

Aidan Sullivan, who is both Chair of the competition and vice president of assignments for Getty, said “The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

Samuel has won a cash prize of €10,000 as well as a Canon DSLR and lens kit. The images will be displayed worldwide over the coming year, with details of gallery showing at the World Press Photo website.