Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine

Jury comment

The photograph of this Palestinian boy speaks to the long-term costs of war, the silences that perpetuate violence, and the role of journalism in exposing these realities. Without shying away from the corporeal impacts of war, the photo approaches conflict and statelessness from a human angle, shedding light on the physical and psychological traumas civilians have been forced to, and will continue to endure through industrial scale killing and warfare. The Jury found this portrait, with its strong composition and attention to light, to be contemplative, sparking questions about the experiences yet to come for the young wounded boy, about the dehumanization of a region, and about the relentless targeting of journalists in Gaza alongside the continued denial of access to international reporters seeking to expose the realities of this war.