If the international World Press Photo competition is a barometer of the state of the world, there is no reason to rejoice. Armed conflicts, migration crises, natural disasters, homelessness… The 130 or so photographs exhibited in the Old Port this week challenge us on the human tragedies experienced on five continents.
And these are just the photographs selected by the World Press Photo jury. The Amsterdam-based organization received more than 60,000 photos for its annual competition.
The North American winner, Charles-Frédérick Ouellet, photographed an auxiliary fighter at the site of a forest fire in Saguenay last summer. Théo Dagnaud was immortalized on a huge rock in the middle of the devastated forest, at the end of a day of vigil.
“Théo Dagnaud was doing a final patrol,” the photographer tells us, “who was trying to illustrate our difficult cohabitation with nature. He climbed up on this rock to take a last look, just to make sure there was nothing left on the site, before declaring that the area was completely out.”
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
There are approximately 130 photographs that can be seen at the Bonsecours Market in the Old Port of Montreal.
Charles-Frédérick Ouellet has been working for several years on forest regeneration cycles through fire. With the authorization of the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU), he had access to several fire sites, including those he photographed in Saguenay, in the summer of 2023, north of Lac-Saint-Jean.
The exhibition curator, Marika Cukrowski, originally from Ontario, praised the work of the Quebec photographer.
“It’s a striking image,” she tells us. “People aren’t aware that forest fires affect Quebec and Canada so much. We have the impression elsewhere in the world that the environment is safe here. But that’s not the case. The composition of the photo is also very powerful, with this man alone in the middle of the cleared forest. It makes the climate crisis very real, very concrete.”
Many other photographs in the exhibition bear witness to this cruel reality. Among them is the photo of the year, taken by Palestinian photojournalist Mohammed Salem.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Photojournalist Mohammed Salem won the Photo of the Year award for A Palestinian woman hugs her niece’s body.
His photo Palestinian woman hugs her niece’s body was taken for Reuters last October in the southern Gaza Strip, in Khan Younis, a territory completely razed by the Israeli army. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, two-thirds of the victims in Gaza are women and children, we can read on the caption of the photo.
“The woman in the photo, Inas Abu Maamar, learned that her house had been destroyed by Israeli bombing,” says curator Marika Cukrowski. “So she went to the hospital to look for her loved ones, but it was in the morgue that she finally found members of her family, including her 5-year-old niece. This photo was chosen first to highlight the human tragedy of the Palestinians, but also because it shows death in a modest and respectful way.”
The exhibition, which is divided by continent, highlights other conflicts. Whether in Ukraine, the Philippines or Burma. Or ecological disasters experienced in Indonesia, Venezuela or Turkey, during the earthquake.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Another poignant photo: A father’s paintaken by Adam Altan following the earthquake in Turkey in February 2023. Mesut Hançer holds the hand of his daughter Irmak, 15, who was found dead in the rubble of the family home.
As every year, there are always one or two series that bring hope. Like this (award-winning) series by South African photographer Lee-Ann Olwage, who made a portrait of an old man from Madagascar, Dada Paul, suffering from dementia. We see the 91-year-old man with one of his daughters, who takes care of him, in a country where dementia or Alzheimer’s are unknown and poorly treated.
Another series that brings hope: the campaign led by Canada, the United States and Mexico to reverse the decline of monarch butterflies – which have fallen by more than 80% since the mid-1990s. The photographs taken by Jaime Rojo were published as part of a major report by National GeographicThe only problem is that you have to read all the labels to understand what is happening in the photos.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
South African photographer Lee-Ann Olwage has captured the portrait of Dada Paul, a 91-year-old man living in Madagascar who suffers from dementia.
The photographers of The Press are also featured; we can see a selection of photos by Alain Roberge, Edouard Plante-Fréchette, Dominick Gravel, Josie Desmarais, François Roy, Robert Skinner, Martin Chamberland, Martin Tremblay, Marco Campanozzi, Patrick Sanfaçon, Olivier Jean and Hugo-Sébastien Aubert. Finally, the photos of the finalists of the Antoine-Desilets prize, awarded each year by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, are also exhibited.
From August 28 to October 14 at the Bonsecours Market
Visit the World Press Photo website