Swedish photog wins World Press award

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Chairman of the jury of the 2013 World Press Photo contest, Vice President and Director of Photography of The Associated Press, Santiago Lyon, far left, and director of World Press Photo Michiel Munneke, second left, listen to questions during a press conference as the winning picture by Paul Hansen, Sweden, for Dagens Nyheter, is projected on a screen in Amsterdam, Friday Feb. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. The victims, a brother and sister, are wrapped in white cloth with only their faces showing.

"The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children," said jury member Mayu Mohanna of Peru. "It's a picture I will not forget."

World Press Photo, one of photojournalism's most prestigious contests, issued awards in nine categories to 54 photographers of 32 nationalities.

Hansen's Nov. 20 shot won top prize in both the spot news single photograph category and the overall competition. It portrays 2-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her 3-year-old brother Muhammad, who were killed when their house was destroyed by the Israeli attack. They are being carried by grieving uncles, as their father Fouad was also killed, and his body can be seen in the background of the picture.

The children's mother, whose name was not provided, was in intensive care.

"This prize is the highest honour you can get in the profession," Hansen told The Associated Press. "I'm very happy, but also very sad. The family lost two children and the mother is unconscious in a hospital."

"These situations are so visually complex," he added. "It's difficult to convey the emotions, to translate what is happening. The light is harsh and there are a lot of people.

"But in the alley the light bounced off the walls, so I thought this is a place where you can see that it's a procession. ... You get the depth in the image, and the bouncing light."