“Under the Dark Clouds of War”: a photo from Ukraine won the UNICEF 2023 Prize of the Year

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A photo from Ukraine was awarded the photo of the year by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This was reported on the website of the organization.

Polish photographer and documentarian Patrick Yarach documented the events of the war from the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The picture shows children – five-year-old Alina and her friends – from the Rivne region, playing outside and riding bicycles, as a cloud of smoke darkens behind them. The day before, an oil storage facility nearby was destroyed due to a massive attack by drones.

“This year’s winning image by Polish photographer Patryk Jarach symbolizes the light of children’s resilience and joy breaking through the darkness of global wars, conflicts and disasters“, UNICEF noted.

In his photo, the artist talked about the life and psychological injuries inflicted on Ukrainian children from February 2022.

“Under the dark clouds of war”. Photo: Patrick Yarach.

“It is children like five-year-old Alina and her friends who give us hope and make us look with optimism to the future“, said the UNICEF patron Elke Budenbender at the award ceremony in Berlin. “In the midst of bad news, we have a responsibility to do everything we can for children around the world, to work together to bring good news and transform precarious situations into acceptable ones. So that children everywhere can grow up in peace and dignity“.

Jury members of the competition Peter-Mathias Goede and Klaus Honnef also emphasized that these photos cannot leave anyone indifferent, especially when the situation in the world has become “more complicated and confusing than it was at the beginning of the contest 24 years ago.”

The second “Photos of the Year 2023” award was won by a German photographer Oliver Wyken, which highlights the topic of child labor. The photo report shows boys in Afghanistan forced to work in coal mines in the Chinarak mountains north of Kabul. After the victory of the Taliban, more and more families are sending their children to earn money.

“There is hardly any other country in the world where children’s rights are so far from being realized“, UNICEF wrote.

“In the burrows of Chinarak”. Photo: Oliver Viken.

The third prize was awarded to Natalia Saprunova, a photographer from Russia, for her report on the children of the indigenous Evenki people. She documented the transformation of her childhood in Yakutia, Siberia.

“Children from the great cold forest”. Photo: Natalia Saprunova.

The exhibition of all winning works will be exhibited at the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz in Berlin until the end of January 2024. The works will then be opened to the general public at the Willy Brandt House from February 2, 2024.

The “Photo of the Year” award from UNICEF

For 24 years, UNICEF Germany has been celebrating the photographs and reports of professional photojournalists documenting the lives of children around the world. In 2022, the winner was the photographer from Argentina, Eduardo Soteras, for a series of photographs about children from the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

“Seeking refuge in books”. Photo: Eduardo Soretas.

Read also: The photo taken in the Ukrainian reserve won the international contest “Wiki Loves the Earth-2023”

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