World Press Awards winner Lee-Ann Olwage on her love for storytelling through photography
it’s time to bring you today’s perspective guest and there were over 61,000 entries from nearly 4,000 different photographers around the world from 130 different countries but there could only be a few winners these are the winners of the World Press photo Awards one of the world’s most prestigious photography competitions going to look at some of the winning pictures as we talk to one of the four winners Lee an ol joins us now from Cape Town thanks very much for being with us on the program first of all congratulations let’s have a look um at your picture uh as we talk you won for Photo Story of the Year didn’t you so not just a wonderful picture itself but a great story behind us as well so tell us what the story is good morning thank you for having me so the story of valimaa is the story of daa Paul and his daughter Farah and his granddaughter who live in Madagascar and D Paul’s been living with dementia for 11 years and his daughter Farah has been caring for him single handedly for nine of those 11 years initially nine of her other siblings wanted nothing to do with him and nobody knew what was wrong with him fah never heard of the word dementia and so her father who’s a retired chauffeur would come and fetch her from work every day and then one day he couldn’t find his way home and she realized that something was wrong she reached out to mandre moodi who’s the only Alzheimer’s organization in Madagascar and they explained to her what was happening to her father and how to take care of him and one of the biggest problems in Madagascar is a lack of public awareness for people so that they can understand what’s happening when people are living with dementia what are the symptoms you know and these signs and symptoms of dementia are often misunderstood and thought to be linked to Witchcraft or Madness so it’s very common for people living with dementia to be stigmatized to be ostracized from society and their families I mean it’s incredible to hear that nowadays isn’t it let’s have a look at some of the other images cuz you took whole series of them didn’t you of of the couple you know the couple the grandfather and and the grandchild as they went around about their sort of everyday life absolutely so the day I met them was a Sunday morning they were getting ready for church and one of my favorite moments was seeing D Paul putting on his finest brown suit and he has this hat that he absolutely adores that has Victoria Secret on it and so the family got ready to go to church and for me it was just wonderful to see how Pharaoh really makes an effort to keep that a PO you know as an active member of society how they go to church together how they cook together on a Sunday his special job is to clean the fish and it takes him hours sometimes to finish the task you know they they’re cooking a pot on the fire and sometimes the fire even goes out but she gives him the space to do that so that he can feel like a valid member of their family and society and I think for people living as dementia it’s so common to be pushed as decide and not to be made part of society or the family anymore and did you realize when you were taking the pictures how special they were going to be particularly the winner of course I mean I love meeting the family it was just this incredible moment I’ve been working on a project called the big forget for the last three years about dementia in Africa and for me this was kind of the moment where I felt like I finally found the family that really portrayed everything that I wanted to show you know it’s a very difficult story about cultural stigma about about the belief in the Supernatural in Witchcraft and I think telling that story can be incredibly difficult and you need to be very sensitive as a Storyteller so I think it took me 3 years to really find the visual language the right family that I felt touched on this very difficult social issue but also highlighted a story of Hope of of family which is so Universal it’s something we can all relate to let’s have a look at the overall winner as well this is by Muhammad Salam it shows a woman embracing the body of her niece killed along with her mother and sister uh when an Israeli missile struck their home in Han yunice I mean another very moving very you know telling picture isn’t it absolutely I think Hamed’s picture is it tells this Universal story of of love and loss in a way that is incredibly profound and beautiful and moving and I think the way that he’s done it is just so powerful by not showing the faces of the victims but really moving us to action to to understand that this is happening that this is the loss that it’s something that we can already relate to the love of a mother or Aunt or a family member and it’s a brilliant photograph I’m so excited for him and I cannot wait to meet him in Amsterdam next week well let’s have a look at some of the other pictures while I ask you this question I mean there are all sorts of different pictures some of them in Ukraine some of them showing migrants fleeing in in the US I mean how important do you think it is to recognize really photojournalism in this way the worldpress photo contest I think really makes an effort to highlight the stories of the year but the kind of stories that they choose to celebrate I always find amazing because it’s this incredible mix of what’s happening in the world and then what I like to call the quiet Stories the stories that don’t always make the news headlines but that are so important they they’re really telling of our Humanity of our our Collective Consciousness and where we are you know as humanity and I always think it’s such a wonderful opportunity for the work of photogen to be celebrated by a platform like this and to have such a big Global reach and particularly important with some of the conflicts going on around the world at the moment absolutely I think it’s more important than ever for for people to to see these stories to find ways to relate to them so that they’re not just news headlines that we understand that these are families these are people like you and me and you know how we connect conect to those stories is so important how we made aware of things happening in the world that we’re not necessarily exposed to that is somebody’s life out there that’s somebody’s reality and I really want to just celebrate the photographers out there doing the work and making sure that the world sees these important stories what drives people do you think to to do the job that that you and and your colleagues if that’s the right word do because you know it does can put you in an extremely dangerous uh position I think it’s more of a calling it’s it’s not something you you just choose to do I think you’re just on that path and there’s no way to not do it I think it’s such a strong drive as a Storyteller I think storytelling is such a you know Universal way for us to connect to each other I think we all storytellers at heart we just find different ways of of sharing those stories and it really is just it’s something that’s in our bones I think and we love it we love storytelling and we love sharing that with the world and what’s next for you you got other images up your sleeve so because this is a long-term project I’ll continue a few more chapters I don’t feel like I’m done with with this story um so I’m planning to go to benine next and then I’m also doing another project on girls education and how climate change is impacting that and also working with female seaweed farmers in Zanzibar at the moment look it’s been lovely looking at your pictures thanks very much for for talking to us about them and the other pictures as well in fact there’s exhibitions of some of the photographs going on around the uh around the world in different cities at the moment so if you do get a chance uh look them up the uh world uh press Awards uh there’s one of those exhibitions in London at bar yards but I’m sure you’ll find it online to see if the city where you are has one of those exhibitions going on at the moment because there’s quite a few of them around the world thanks very much for joining us on the program today
One of the winners of this year’s World Press Awards spoke to FRANCE 24 about how it feels to be recognised, and how important it is for photojournalists to continue carrying out their work. The awards are given out to those who have worked in some of the world’s hotspots like Gaza and Ukraine, but also to some of those who have taken pictures of lesser known stories around the world. Lee-Ann Olwage’s award-winning picture shows a grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s disease, with his granddaughter. Little is known about the illness in Madagascar, where those who are diagnosed with it are often stigmatised.
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