The Ukrainian photographer became the winner of World Press Photo 2024

Yulia Kochetova

Ukrainian photographer Yulia Kochetova became one of the winners of the award for photojournalists World Press Photo 2024. The jury awarded her project “War is personal” (War Is Personal).

Kochetova became one of the winners in the Europe category, according to the World Press Photo website.

“The emotional images stand out among the many works about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The jury notes the insider’s perspective of this story, told by a Ukrainian photographer, which is especially noticeable in the visual symbolism, the intensive use of color, and the collaboration with a Ukrainian illustrator and DJ“, the jury of the competition commented on the victory of the Ukrainian woman.

Also the jury World Press Photo notes that audio recordings, music and illustrations, with which Kochetova complements the photos taken during the war, make her project similar to a movie.

In addition, a photographer from Germany was also the winner in the Europe category Johanna Maria Fritz. In June 2023, she shot a report for Die Zeit about the consequences of the Russians blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP in the Kherson region.

Scandal around the jury World Press Photo 2024

In 2024, a scandal broke out around the jury of the World Press Photo competition. The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF) demanded that the representative of Russia, Maria Gelman, be excluded from it. “Russia’s unprovoked, aggressive, cruel and unjust war against Ukraine has been going on since 2014, and we believe that the participation of the representative of the Russian Federation Maria Gelman raises a lot of ethical questions“, said the appeal of Ukrainian photographers.

However, the organizers of World Press Photo 2024 refused to deprive the Russian Gelman of membership in the European jury team. Andrew Davis, director of communications for the contest, said that she was chosen for her professionalism and experience, and Gelman will approach the evaluation “with care and professionalism.”

About the World Press Photo contest

World Press Photo – a competition for all professional photographers working in the field of photojournalism or documentary photography. Winners are determined every year: first at the regional level, and then at the global level.

This year, the names of 24 regional winners will be announced on April 3. Then four laureates will be chosen from among them in global nominations: World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo Story of the Year, World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award and World Press Photo Open Format Award.

Last year, the winner of the competition was a Ukrainian photographer Evgeny Maloletka. He was noted for a series of pictures The Siege of Mariupol (“Siege of Mariupol”). First, his series was included in the list of laureates in the Europe category, and then one of the pictures – from the Mariupol maternity hospital bombed by the Russians – was named the Photo of the Year.