The World Press Photo Award winners have been announced. And among them we have two Micro Four Thirds shooter. Magnum Photographer Jerome Sessini, who won 1st prize in the Spot News category. He used the Olympus E-M1 for that picture. Fulvio Bugani won the third prize in the Contemporary Issues category using the E-M5.
And Quesabesde made that nice infographic to show what camera have been used by the winners.
As you can see Canon still rules and the only digital mirrorless camera winners used Olympus cameras.
26 Responses
quality plays no big role for press photos.
they take everything quality wise as long as the image has impact.
Isn’t that how all photos should be judged? (apart from maybe advertisement, product, etc…)
These guys had good eye and used the tools and gear they had with them. I don’t thin my congrats go to them as good photojournalists.
Gear is of no importance in the case of PJ.
You’re confusing gear with IQ. Gear is not only a sensor believe it or not, it also entails ergonomics and features. These things might not be important to the audience or the agency but they’re to the PJ on the field. You need reliability and comfort, you cannot enter a conflict with just a low budget smartphone (reliability) nor with a Large format camera (comfort), you need something small, weather sealed, with good lenses, connectivity and fast AF…And m43 fits the bill perfectly.
There are some quite powerful pictures and stories.
On the choice of gear: I know a guy who was an avid m4/3 user and eventually became a professional photojournalist. He asked for an EM1 + 12-40. Instead they gave him an EOS 1 mk . That’s what they had available. So the what gear they used tangent can be a bit skewed.
Em-1 is a great camera but miss something that can be critical in photojournalism : double SD slot.
I met a few young guns, especially one that was using an m9 for his spare time, they were all using canon bodies when working on critical condition like Libya or Egypt. Not because it’s the best camera bodies, but because they are reliable and tought bodies, and spare parts (or bodies & battery) are widely available.
DSLRs with double SD slot became redundant (for this line of work) the moment mirrorless companies implemented built-in wifi in their pro weather sealed bodies.Sure, a secondary SD card can separately hold either your JPEGs or RAWs, but it can do so up to a limit, with wifi you get the same functionality (dual back up: RAWs in camera, JPEGs though wifi) but with a larger storage capacity (SSDs) and the ability to immediately send your pictures to your agency as they’re been taken (without the need to insert any card to a laptop hours later at a hotel). The only remaining benefit of larger canikon is their vast and established worldwide network, but even then you won’t get your gear officially repaired in the middle of a war zone.
What ? Wifi back up ? Yeah, let’s drain battery life.This is a really strange idea on field. On SSD ? Ssd are basically a flash drive …
Anyway, you still need to reach your laptop to get your satellite connection. Or maybe you can reach a starbuck and get a free wifi connection.
I think his plane ticket was more important than the camera here; any camera would work.
And the same could be said for the other photographs.
If you had a look at the interior pictures from the same series, you would say otherwise. I was very impressed by the dynamic range and the powerful look of the images. And I am not referring to the extremely graphic and disturbing content. I didn’t think that this was possible with a 4/3 sensor
Well of course. Obviously if owning good gear were the only prerequisite to taking award-winning photos we’d all be highly decorated.
Good luck covering a war zone with a large format camera or a lomography toy, let’s not be naive, this is specialized work, you need something appropriate not just anything.
Sure the plane ticket is important but so are the weight restrictions that accompanies it, specially in a war zone. The merit behind choosing m43 for this type of assignment is precisely that a m43 kit would let him carry more gear for the same weight and volume than a DSLR could, meaning that you can bring a more varied and versatile set to the field, or better yet, bring the essentials and carry a far more lighter and unobtrusive kit, something which is VERY important in these types of assignments. If Capa was alive today I’m absolutely sure he wouldn’t be carrying a big 5D MkIII or 1 DX or any other DSLR.
Why do modern PJs do so ? Because that’s what they’re familiar with and that’s what their agencies are comfortable with too, not just because of reliability but for business relationships too. Today we have shock proof and weather sealed mirrorless cameras with pro features, soon enough they’ll make the transition out of necessity and convenience. Dual SD slot becomes unnecessary once you have built-in wifi and can transfer immediately and on the go to your agency, something far more valuable than another vulnerable card.
the person in this picture is someones loved one, son, family member… and to “win” something from their grief and pain will never be photography to me …
I can fully understand where you are coming from. There is always a problem with ethics when victims are present. But after seeing what happens when a plane explodes at 30.000ft, it makes you question when you are told that the same was the case on 9/11 in front of the Pentagon or at a much lower height in Pennsylvania…
As bitter as the death of innocent is, it is even more cynic when the responsible remain unpunished. In that way, these images have affected my views considerably and that is why I think they deserve recognition.
So you do not respect at all those, who tell the story, what happened etc?
So you don’t have any respect to story tellers in history who told to others what they knew, people who were skilled enough to know how to write so they can write the history for future generations, people today who reveal the dirty secrets like Snowden or Assange?
There are victims, other as well than dead ones.
So do you respect those who take photographs of the catastrophes caused by nature?
After all, there are someones who were loved on, son, family members, buildings, roads, bridges, statues, historical archives, libraries etc.
Like example:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/02/article-2441235-186F655600000578-734_964x644.jpg
That photograph would not be taken if you would be there. Because it presents someones beloved people, sons, murderers and possible rapists passing the river.
When you go on the streets and you look around, there are people in suits, who make their money by driving whole families out of their homes because the corporations they work for, needs to make profit to other people who walk on those same streets.
Where you draw your ethics, and what is “photography to you”, is your own line. But think about it, what if you are working for such a corporation, even if you would be working just as janitor or receptionist. You are still working for people, who does more harm than good to whole world.
Now, you can either close your eyes and just think “I do my job well, I am not like them”.
Or you can reveal those people to others what they do, what they have done so others will see it as well.
Like in Western countries it is tried to blame Russia troops shot down the plane, causing those harms. As it has been proofed by Scandinavian countries research teams and Russia that it was Ukraine military that did it.
No one anymore remember that plane, where it came, where it was going, who was the air controller responsible to guide that plane, what happened after it got shot and it turn around back to Ukraine side instead crossing the border.
These photographs are there to remind that there were someones loved ones, family members, human beings that were murdered by western bankers and politics So they could make profit.
It is easy to live when you don’t see the evil. When you don’t hear the evil. When you don’t talk the evil. But the evil is still there. It isn’t going anywhere if you close your eyes, mouth and ears from it.
Where can i see the photo?
here is a linke to the photo:
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2015/spot-news/j%C3%A9r%C3%B4me-sessini?gallery=2900401&category=57
cheers!
FARK hasn’t the guy got ENOUGH cameras that he has to GLOAT to the world?? So fecking what!!
I mean ELEVEN Canon 5D3’s??? Farking ridiculous!
Read the text, this is breakdown listing of all the winner[s] cameras …. (infographic to show what camera have been used by the winners) … you are complaining about something you’ve made up in your mind.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
There’s no wedding pictures in there. Not interested.
There are two kinds of people.
1) Those who see the photographs, their theme, composition, timing, exposure…
2) Those who see cameras and believe that it is the violin that creates the beautiful music.
This is one reason why I respect more about those who travel and captures moments, than those who try to go snapping photos on streets or be creative with models and in studio with flashes.
Passing strange then that under “technical information” Jerome Sessini used a Canon 5Dii