Crying Girl on the Border is the World Press Photo of the Year

John Moore’s image portrays a two-year-old Honduran girl crying as she and her mother are taken into custody by a United States border official in McAllen, Texas, on 12 June.

John Moore’s image portrays a two-year-old Honduran girl crying as she and her mother are taken into custody by a United States border official in McAllen, Texas, on 12 June.

The World Press Photo Foundation announced the results of the 62nd annual World Press Photo Contest and the 9th annual World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest, at its annual Awards Show in Amsterdam, on 11 April.

The main prize, assigned to what is considered the photo of the year by the contest's independent jury, went to John Moore's image of an Honduran crying baby at the border between Mexico and USA. The image is a quite iconic representation of the even more complicated crisis that it is happening now that the Trump administration adopted the zero-tolerance policy.

Immigration is also the central them of the World Press Photo Story of the Year award, introduced this year for the very first time. The prize went to The Migrant Caravan by Pieter Ten Hoopen who portrayed the story of a caravan formed by thousands of Central American migrants. The group assembled through a grassroots social media campaign left Hounduras in October 2018 with the hope to reach the United States border.

The Last Generation by FRONTLINE/The GroundTruth Project wins the newly established World Press Photo Interactive of the Year. The video brings audiences into the lives of three children from the Marshall Islands, who face losing not just their homes, but their entire nation to rising seas. The Marshall Islands is a chain of low-lying coral uplifts halfway between Hawaii and Australia that is home to more than 50,000 people, with nearly half of them under the age of eighteen. Scientists predict that if the global temperature rise is not contained, the islands could become uninhabitable within the lifetime of the children living there today. Through intimate moments and compelling stories, the film’s young protagonists—9-year-old Izerman, 14-year-old Julia and 12-year-old Wilmer—draw us into the importance and urgency of what is at stake.

The Legacy of the Zero Tolerance Policy: Traumatized Children With No Access to Treatment, by Univision News Digital wins instead the also new World Press Photo Online Video of the Year. The project tells the story of Adayanci Pérez, one of more than 2,500 children who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border as part of Donald Trump’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy. The six-year-old Guatemalan girl was away from her family for three-and-a-half months, and before being allowed to return to her family in Guatemala she was diagnosed with acute trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. This film shows the reality of the policy’s legacy, and gives a voice to those who are not always heard.

To see all the results and much more please visit worldpressphoto.org