Press

The Alfred Fried Photography Award 2019 for the Peace Image of the Year goes to Stefan Boness

Student Environmental activists show "Our Future In Your Hands" during the worldwide movement FridaysForFuture, Fridays for Future, or Global Strike for Future climate protest, on March 15th, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. The protest is in favour for a radical climate change, against coal-based energy policy and the failure of older generations to address the destruction of the planet.

The German photographer wins with a photo report on the Fridays for Future movement

Vienna, 12 September 2019 – For the seventh time, the winners of the international photo competition for the best image of peace were presented at the Austrian Parliament. The award is named after the Austrian Nobel Peace Laureate of 1911, Alfred Hermann Fried. The main award, worth 10 000 Euros, for the Peace Image of the Year 2019, went to Berlin-based German photographer Stefan Boness for his reportage on a Fridays-for-Future demonstration, where children and young people protested against the lack of commitment of international politics in connection with climate change. The international jury called Boness’ reportage a document of what is probably the biggest peace initiative in the world at present.

12-year-old Dune Laboile from France won the prize for the best Children’s Peace Image of the Year. The prize, worth 1000 Euros, is sponsored by the Vienna Insurance Group and was awarded for a photograph that looks like a dream sequence from a carefree childhood. The prize was presented by Judit Havasi, member of the Managing Board VIG, and by Barbara Grötschnig, VIG Group Sponsoring.

In his welcome address, parliamentary secretary Harald Dossi said he was very pleased that the Alfred Fried Photography Award was being presented in the rooms of the Austrian Parliament. This was highly appropriate, since democratic parliaments also contributed to peace. Dossi promised that the Alfred Fried Photography Award would also be welcome in the traditional premises of the parliament when it will return there in the summer of 2021 after renovation. The winning picture has a prominent position in front of the plenary chamber.

Lois Lammerhuber, who initiated the Alfred Fried Photography Award jointly with his wife Silvia Lammerhuber, quoted Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser: „When one man dreams it is just a dream. But when many people dream, it can change the world.“ And the Alfred Fried Photography Award could also be the start of a change for the better.

In a moving address, Pulitzer Prize winner Matthew Caruana Galizia, former member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), whose journalist mother was murdered in Malta, said that, regardless of all the attacks, it was the duty of journalists to fight for a democratic society, against corruption and against any attempt to suppress the freedom of expression and of people.

Barbara Trionfi, Executive Director, International Press Institute (IPI): “The beauty of the Alfred Fried Award’s photographs stands in stark contrast to the numerous stories of attacks against, and murders of, photographers and journalists all over the world. The dissemination of information and images remains today a subversive activity, and a dangerous one, in many realities. And yet a vital one to bring the world closer together. It deserves our support!”

This year’s head of the 25-strong jury, Norwegian Hilde Sandvik, quoted Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who once wrote: “War is what happens when language fails.” But sometimes, Sandvik added, images, photographs, can make language find its power again and not be crushed by the weight of lies, violence, tyranny. The photographs presented with the Alfred Fried Photography Award may form nothing less than a bastion when language fails.

The verdicts of the jury, made up of members from eight nations, for the six distinctions in total, were presented by long-standing editor-in-chief of GEO magazine, Peter-Matthias Gaede, from Hamburg.

Olivia Wells, standing in for 2018 Nobel Peace laureate Nadia Murad, reminded the audience of the fate of the Yazidi minority in Iraq, pursued, enslaved and murdered by IS terrorists. She demanded that anywhere in the world efforts must be made to guarantee new security and justice for minorities, women, victims of persecution. Only then would our world at last become peaceful.

The Alfred Fried Photography Award 2019 attracted a total of 17.387 pictures, entered by 1.558 photographers from 113 countries, including China, India, Russia, Iran, Brazil and the USA. The jury, headed by Sandvik and made up by the founder of the award, Lois Lammerhuber, and his wife, Silvia Lammerhuber, plus photographers, newspaper editors, representatives of photographic associations, of the World Press Photo Awards and of UNESCO, awarded prizes to four more photographers besides the main winners Stefan Boness und Dune Laboile.

Alfred Fried Photography Award Medals 2019 went to:

Dutch photographer Ilvy Njiokiktjien for her work on young South Africans, who were born into a new optimism after the end of apartheid.  

Indonesian photographer Dilla Djalil Daniel for her empathetic images from a rehabilitation centre, where Orangutan babies, who have lost their mothers, are prepared for life in the wild.

Columbian-born, France-based, photographer Camilo Leon-Quijano, who documented the rise and new self-confidence of a rugby team of daughters of migrants in a Paris suburb. 

French photographer Alain Laboile, father of the winner in the children/young people category, for his enchanting visual diary of the free, wild, happy life of his six children.

The winning entries:
„FridaysForFuture Climate Protest „, Stefan Boness, Germany
„BORN FREE – Mandela’s Generation of Hope“, Ilvy Njiokiktjien, The Netherlands
„The Forest Orphanage“, Nur Adilla Djalil Daniel, Indonesia
„Le temps retrouvé“, Alain Laboile, France
„The Rugbywomen: Tackling Stereotypes“, Camilo Leon-Quijano, France
„Slow Stream“, Dune Laboile, France

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 World Press Photo Foundation. www.friedaward.com

Press material (winning pictures, jury statements, pictures of the ceremony) can be downloaded from :
http://press.lammerhuber.at/presskit-friedaward-2019

Further enquiries:
Lois Lammerhuber +4369913583989
lois.lammerhuber@friedaward.com

Text by Peter-Matthias Gaede

Follow us on Twitter: @FriedPhotoAward
Follow us on Instagram: alfredfriedaward

return to Press

Connect with us