AP Photo from Gaza Wins Top Honors in China Contest

AP photographer Bernat Armangue took top honors in the China International Press Photo Competition (CHIPP), winning Picture of the Year and a gold prize for “Goodbye in Gaza,” a moving image of a Palestinian man kissing the hand of a dead relative in a morgue in Gaza City.

The same image also won a first prize for spot news photography in the 2013 World Press Photo competition earlier this year.

“No matter which side of a conflict you are covering, nobody enjoys taking pictures in moments like this,” Armangue told BBC News in a December 2012 interview describing the backstory of how he came to capture this particular image. “For years, I’ve covered both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian problem and I’ve seen people from both sides mourning their lost ones. I guess this is what this picture shows: the price of war, no matter who or where you are.”

In addition to Armangue, AP photographers won two other gold prizes, four silver, three bronze and five awards of excellence in the CHIPP contest. In total, photographers from 23 countries and regions worldwide won 75 prizes in CHIPP’s competition in 8 categories this year.

The winning images can be seen at: http://www.chipp.cn/node_38131.htm.

Other AP photographers honored are:

-Esteban Felix, gold prize for General News stories with “A country with violence”
-Oded Balilty, gold prize for Daily Life Stories with “Spirit of the Soviet Union,” silver prize for Daily Life Stories with “An ultra-orthodox wedding,” and silver prize in Sports Stories with “Boxing for peace.”
-Altaf Qadri, silver prize for General News singles with “Aung San Suu Kyi.”
-Manu Brabo, silver prize in War and Disaster News Stories for “Syria’s civil war.”
-Felipe Dana, bronze prize for General News singles for “Rio violence.”
-Daniel Ochoa de Olza, bronze prize in Economy, Science and Technology News Stories for “Spain’s financial crisis,” and bronze prize in Portrait and People in the News Stories for “Return of matador.”
-Emilio Morenatti, award of excellence in Economy, Science and Technology News Stories for “Spain’s financial crisis.”
-Petros Giannakouris, award of excellence in Economy, Science and Technology News Stories for “Spain’s financial crisis.”
-Francois Mori, award of excellence in Art Cultures and Entertainment News Singles for “Li Wei.”
-Greg Bull, award of excellence in Portrait and People in the News Singles for “Mrs. Gingrich.”
-Anurup Titu, award of excellence in Daily Life Singles for “Refugees.”


In recent months, AP photographers have also been honored by POYi, World Press Photo and the White House News Photographers Association.

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