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Peace Image of the Year 2017 title goes to Cletus Nelson Nwadike

This evening, in the rooms of the Austrian parliament, the Alfred Fried Photography Award, an international photo competition now in its fifth year, was presented to the winners of the best image of peace. The award is named after the 1911 Austrian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Alfred Hermann Fried. The main prize, worth 10 000 euros, went to Sweden-based Cletus Nelson Nwadike, who had left his native Nigeria where a civil war was raging that cost two million lives. In his photo essay Nwadike celebrates freedom from violence and the gift of being allowed to live in peace.

A first this year was the 1000 euros prize for the best single picture, which went to US photographer Jonathan Bachman for the image of a woman protesting peacefully against racial violence, at the moment of her arrest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Another first this year was the best image of peace by a child or young person. The 1000 euros prize went to twelve-year-old Lina Momsen from Hamburg for a picture that captures the importance of friendship. The Children Peace Image of the Year Award is supported by the Vienna Insurance Group.

In her speech about the current situation of journalists in many areas ridden by crisis and torn by war, Barbara Trionfi, Director of the International Press Institute (IPI), pointed out the many threats to the freedom of press and of expression, also, never more so than now, in Turkey.

In her address, Liv Tørres, Director of the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, reminded the 150-strong audience of Austrian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Alfred Hermann Fried, after whom the award is named. Peace was harder to win than war, she said. And this is why we must talk more about peace-building measures – in a dialogue in which photography plays an important role. Photography was an international language, able to touch souls. 

For Gerhard Hinterleitner, head of this year’s jury, the question What does Peace look like? was “one of the most exciting assignments in times of discord”. 

The organizer of the Alfred Fried Photography Awards, Lois Lammerhuber, hosted the celebration and proudly declared a new record of more than 19 000 images entered by candidates from 165 countries. 

The jury was made up of photographers, photo journalists, newspaper editors, representatives of photographic associations and of UNESCO, from Austria, Germany, France, Norway, Finland and the US, and for the first time included Lars Boering, Managing Director of the World Press Photo Amsterdam. In addition to the main prize for Cletus Nelson Nwadike and Jonathan Bachman, it awarded Alfred-Fried-Photography-Award-Medals to: 

Chinese photographer Zongren Xing for his photo report about the love of a couple who overcomes their severe physical impairments with mutual help and confidence. 

Dutch photographer Carla Kogelman for the long-term portrait of two girls in an asylum centre, who make up for the deficits in their biographies with friendship, optimism and infectious activity.

Tunisian-based French photographer Yoann Cimier for a poetic photo essay about peaceful life on the beach on the island of Djerba.


The winning images

The Alfred Fried Photography Award is presented in partnership between Photographische Gesellschaft (PHG), Edition Lammerhuber, UNESCO, Austrian Parliament, the Austrian Parliamentary Reporting Association, International Press Institute (IPI), German Youth Photography Award and supported by World Press Photo.

Press material (winning pictures, jury statements, pictures of the ceremony) can be downloaded from: http://www.friedaward.com/presskit-2017.zip

Photos from the award ceremony:
http://www.friedaward.com/

Twitter: @FriedPhotoAward
Instagram: alfredfriedaward

Further enquiries:
Lois Lammerhuber
Edition Lammerhuber
T +43 699 135 83 989
lois.lammerhuber (at) friedaward.com

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