The World Press Photo travelling exhibition will visit Malta for the very first time from 14 September to 7 October.
The prestigious annual photography contest, based in Amsterdam, was founded in 1955 with the aim of pushing photojournalism to the cultural forefront and encouraging the spread of information for proactive purposes. An exhibition of the year’s winners is set up after the contest and the winning photographs of the year get to tour the world. For the 2006 edition, 4,460 professional photographers from 124 different countries participated in the contest, 60 of which were awarded prizes in 10 different categories. A total of 78,083 images were presented.
Judging took place in Amsterdam between 27 January and 8 February and the awards were announced on 22 April. The exhibition then began its tour in Amsterdam on 24 April.
The main prize was awarded to Spencer Platt from Getty Images, who presented a photo depicting affluent young Lebanese driving through South Beirut, freshly devastated by Israeli bombings. The photo gains further poignancy thanks to the fact that it was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
This image, together with around 170 other winning photographs, will be on display at St James Cavalier. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Royal Dutch Embassy in Malta.