20 January 2006
The celebrated World Press Photo exhibition comes to Johannesburg in July, featuring work by two South African photographers and a special portrait of South African Hollywood star Charlize Theron.
The World Press Photo 2005 exhibition, to be held at Museum Africa in Newtown from 20 July to 13 August, will feature the best news photographs of 2004 by some of the world's most respected photo-journalists from over 120 countries.
These include two South African photographers who were among the 2005 World Press Photo winners: Jodi Bieber and Brent Stirton.
Bieber's portraits of survivors of domestic violence in South Africa took second prize for photo stories in the contemporary issues category, while Stirton's portrait of a young Aids orphan standing in a field near Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal took third prize for single photos in the portraits category.
Bieber and Stirton are both former World Press Photo winners: Stirton's portraits of Xhosa initiates was a 2003 winner in the portrait stories category, while Bieber's "Young Pakistani Girl" won first prize for portrait singles in 2002.
In 2001, Bieber's "Illegal Immigrants in South Africa" won first prize for daily life stories, while her picture "Ebola Crisis in Uganda" won third prize for photo stories in the people in the news category
World Press Photo, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands is an independent, non-profit organisation founded in 1955 to promote the work of professional press photographers all over the world and elevate freedom of the press.
The organisation runs the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest. After the contest, the prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition that is visited by over a million people in 40 countries. A yearbook presenting all prizewinning entries is published annually in six languages.
South African Juda Ngwenya, Reuters' chief photographer for southern Africa, was one of the World Press Photo 2005 judges.
The exhibition is being brought to South Africa by Vulindlela Communications and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in SA.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
