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The jury of the World Press Photo Contest has selected a photo by the Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo as the World Press Photo of the Year 2009. The picture depicts women shouting in protest from a rooftop in Tehran. Jury chair Ayperi Karabuda Ecer said: „The photo shows the beginning of something, the beginning of a huge story. It adds perspectives to news. It touches you both visually and emotionally, and my heart went out to it immediately.“

The winning photograph is part of a story showing the nights following the contested presidential elections in Iran, when people shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime protests in the streets. The story as a whole was awarded first prize in the category People in the News. The jury gave prizes in ten themed categories to 63 photographers of 23 nationalities from.

→ Klick die ganze Serie Palestine in Panorama

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„Although it was my first time in Palestine I immediately felt familar with the prevailing situation: Soldiers, weapons, checkpoints, raids, oppression, frustration and the invisible presence of this thin layer of fear that hovers over everday life of the palestinian people – all this led to the same feeling of helplessness as in Kashmir. But still, the Westbank is a visually and emotionally interesting place full of diversity and energy where history is still being written.“

Andy Spyra, born 1984, works as a freelance photographer. His Kashmir series „Valley of Tears“ has been awarded multiple prizes. Flare already published his Report from a crisis region: A bloody day in Kashmir and the interview „Mut, an die eigenen Geschichten zu glauben“ (in German language). Watch more pictures on andyspyra.com.

→ Klick die ganze Serie zu The California Surf Project

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More than 1300 kilometers coastline and dozens of waves: Photographer Chris Burkhard and surf pro Erik Sonderquist traveled along the California Pacific coastline in an old Volkswagen bus. The result is the book The California Surf Project – a surf-road-trip-diary and an impressive portrait of California’s coastline. Read more »

→ Klick die ganze Serie zu A Shadow Falls

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His animal pictures seem perfectly staged, like sophisticated human portraits. But Nick Brandt doesn’t stage anything when he takes his pictures in East Africa’s savanna – with a medium-format camera and a lot of patience. Two exhibitions present his pictures.
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A guest in Absurdistan: In the fith and final part of “Camping in Kabul” travel journalist Michael Obert learns three things: First, aid organizations are like cows drinking their own milk. Second, Afghans are the world’s best golfer. And third, having a German passport you even get served a Pepsi from a guy carrying a kalashnikov. Read more »

At Kabul’s Bird Bazaar travel journalist Michael Obert experiences the unbelievable – he meets Osama bin Laden. He learns that by now in Afghanistan the synonym for all evil is “Guantanmo”. And finally Obert has to answer himself the question why he didn’t think of bringing a bathing trunks. Read more »

Since the fall of the Taliban at the end of 2001, camping is back in. This time behind reinforced concrete, sandbags, and barbed wire. Travel journalist Michael Obert asks himself if the tourists are self-destructive adrenaline junkies – and meets a German soldier who can hardly cope with meeting an unarmed fellow countryman. Read more »

Pashtuns with nightgown and Kalashnikov, tourists with their Lonely Planet guide Afghanistan – after his arrival in Kabul Michael Obert got used to a lot of things. Now he’s meeting a minister who has to live with the fact that two of his three precursors got killed. In a city that was once a camping station for 90.000 hippies. Read more »

30 years after the hippies traveled through Kabul on their way to India tourism aroused again in the Afghan capital – despite war, crisis and kidnappings. Between Japanese tourists with cameras and Pashtuns with kalashnikovs travel journalist Michael Obert feels as being stuck in the theater of the absurd. If only there wasn’t this damn Kabul-cough. Read more »

Michael Obert strolls through Kabul and catches sight of a sign: „Bike and car rental, security service with up to 3000 armed men.“ It’s not going to be the last surprise the German travel journalist experiences in the Afghan capital. Oberts reportage „Camping in Kabul” was published in his book „Die Ränder der Welt“ as well as in „The Journal“ (New York). We are pleased to present the story online. Over the next few days „Camping in Kabul“ will be released in five parts (both German and English) on Flare. Read more »