World Press Photo 2016

By Ben Stephens.

When you walk into a room of photographs and each piece has ability to make you really feel something, it can become a tad bit daunting. But I like to push myself, so what better time for the World Press Photo 2016 Exhibition to land in Sydney to showcase the best in photo journalism from the last year. When you cast your mind back over the last 365 days on the planet Earth, there have been a moment or two of complete chaos, a number of sunrises that have taken a while to move on from and issues that have captured society in different ways, the exhibition is a timely reminder of all that went on in 2015.

The World Press Photo Exhibition shows that perhaps the media world isn’t all phone hacking and white male columnists ranting, there is a side of it that is dedicated to telling the story as it is, from the front line. Photo journalists really throw themselves into a situation to get the shot and that really stands out in this years winning piece by Australian Photographer Warren Richardson.

Warren camped with Syrian refugees in Serbia, waiting to cross over the Hungarian boarder for 5 days. The winning shot is full of emotion, a father handing his child through a barbed wire fence. Adding sensation to the shot is the lack of lighting used, Richardson wasn’t able to use a flash as it would alert the authorities to their location, so he made the best of a delayed exposure and a full moon. This description doesn’t do it any justice, you need to get down to the State Library and check the whole exhibition yourself, it’s an experience.

The awards not only tipped their hat towards still photography but also to multimedia pieces, from innovative, immersive, short and long form, these pieces are equally poignant. The winner of the short form piece made me feel things, I highly recommend checking it out, Fatima’s Drawing, directed, edited and produced by Magnus Wennman… incredible.

World Press Photo Exhibition is at the State Library from May 21 to June 19, 2016.