American photographer John Stanmeyer won the World Press Photo of the Year award for 2013 with a moonlit shot of African migrants in Djibouti holding their cellphones to the sky, seeking a better reception signal.
The 19-person jury chose 53 winning photographers in 18 categories out of nearly 100,000 submissions from around the globe for one of photojournalism's most prestigious awards.
The Associated Press won first place in single-shot "Observed Portraits" for Markus Schreiber's picture of a disappointed woman in Pretoria, South Africa who had just learned she would not be able to view Nelson Mandela's casket.
Stanmeyer, of the VII photo agency, was working for National Geographic. The photo has a mysterious, eerie quality as the phones held by the men in the picture glow the same color as the moon. The signal from neighboring Somalia is cheaper, and they are hoping to send and receive messages from relatives abroad.
Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, is a common stopping point for migrants attempting to reach Europe or the Middle East.
One jury member, Jillian Edelstein, said the photo raised issues of "technology, globalization, migration, poverty, desperation, alienation, (and) humanity." Another, Susan Linfield, said it stood out for its humane, dignified portrayal of immigrants. "So many pictures of migrants show them as bedraggled and pathetic," she said.
Among other standouts were a series by photographer Goran Tomasevic of Reuters of a rebel attack on a government checkpoint in Damascus, Syria on Jan. 30 that won first place in the "Spot News Stories" category. One black-and-white image captures in high resolution the instant after a shell has landed and a fleeing man is engulfed by dust and rubble.
Jury chair Gary Knight called it "one of the greatest images of war combat that anybody has ever seen."
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