World Press Photo Contest 2019 - 1st Prizes Bence Mate
Channel: Bence Mate - The Invisible Bird Photographer
Date: 2019-04-16

From 12-13 April 2019, the World Press Photo Festival 2019 comes back to Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam with a diverse program of presentations, screenings, meetups, and panel talks, showcasing the best of visual journalism.

This year’s program features special guest speakers including the 2019 Contests nominees in a series of themed discussions, Kathy Moran, Senior Editor, Natural History for National Geographic; Tina Rosenberg, co-writer of The New York Times Fixes column and co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network; MFON’s Laylah Amatullah Barrayn and Delphine Fawundu; artist Alexandra Bell, and the renowned Sem Presser Lecture, supported by DuPho by Aida Muluneh.

Anne Colenbrander, World Press Photo Foundation, Festival manager:

“Our purpose is to connect the world with the stories that matter, and the World Press Photo Festival is testament to that. This year, we celebrate the richness and diversity of high quality visual journalism through a dynamic program of presentations, screenings, meetups, on-site exhibitions and panel talks. In addition to the panel sessions, visitors will be among the first to see the winning work of the 2019 Contests in our revamped flagship exhibition, which premieres in De Nieuwe Kerk, and have a chance to enjoy our program of side events.”

Festival passes and day tickets can be purchased here. All tickets are valid on the day and provide access to partner locations at Foam, Huis Marseille and Het Ketelhuis. Friday and two-day passes also include entrance to the exclusive Opening Night of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2019 at De Nieuwe Kerk. Tickets for the Opening Night can be purchased here.

Panel discussions and presentations

Panel discussions and presentations will include, among other topics, debates on solutions journalism, conservation storytelling, the role of social justice in photography, the politics of representation, modern ways of storytelling, the need for underrepresented stories to be told, and investigative journalism.

In the ‘Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative’ session, co-writer of The New York Times Fixes column and co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network Tina Rosenberg and Geesje van Haren, editor in chief of Small Stream Media, explore what a solutions focus in visual journalism means, and will launch the World Press Photo Foundation’s Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative.

As National Geographic magazine’s senior editor for natural history projects, in the presentation ‘Conservation Storytelling at National Geographic’, Kathy Moran will share her experiences of producing and editing over 350 stories for the magazine. Moran is also the founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

In ‘The Politics of Representation’, multidisciplinary artist Alexandra Bell presents her work Counternarratives, which analyzes the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture. Adama Delphine Fawundu and Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, co-founders of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, and Dustin Thierry, a visual artist working on African/Caribbean queer diaspora in the Netherlands, will join her on a panel discussion addressing how to challenge these frameworks.

For the 2019 Sem Presser Lecture, supported by DuPho, photographer Aida Muluneh will delve into her journey as a photographer and an advocate for supporting the new generation of photographers who are the witnesses of the changing dynamics in their own countries across Africa.

On-site exhibitions

Visitors will be able to experience the nine winning productions of the 2019 Digital Storytelling Contest, discover the work of all 6x6 talents in a special exhibition, and look back to all World Press Photo yearbooks displaying the award-winning images of the World Press Photo contest.

World Press Photo Exhibition 2019

The flagship World Press Photo Exhibition 2019, displaying the winning work of the Photo and Digital Storytelling Contests, and the winner of the FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo, premieres at De Nieuwe Kerk on 12 April at the opening night before it travels to 110 locations world wide.