UNICEF Photo of the Year 2001

Each year, UNICEF Germany grants the “UNICEF Photo of the Year Award” to photos and photo series that best depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner. Here are the winners 2000.

Meredith Davenport

Siviani on the Sofa

"This portrait is not meant to arouse pity but rather to reflect Siviani's independent personality. I have experienced Siviani as a person that expresses his ideas and wishes in his very own way", explained the photographer.

"The photo irritates the spectator as he cannot immediately identify the situation the child is living in. Thus, the photo generates a sort of tension, it causes reflection and challenges questions on the personality and the situation the boy illustrated is living in", explained the jury chairman Klaus Honnef Phd.Meredith Davenport's photos show the everyday life of physically and mentally handicapped children and their families in a village about 50 kilometers north-east of Costa Rica's capital of San José. Doctors and scientists assign the children's handicap to the use of pesticides on banana plantations. The children's parents have been exposed to pesticides for years during their work. When taking care of their children they are hardly or only insufficiently supported.

2. Preis für Jan Grarup, "The boys from Ramallah/Westbank"

"Karat" is derived from the name of a shoe polish containing volatile solvents. Street kids use this polish for sniffing. "Heaven over St. Petersburg" denotes not only illusory spaces, but also very real ones: many of these children find a place to sleep in attics and on rooftops above the city where they can be undisturbed taking drugs and earning their living through prostitution.

In the years 2000 and 2001 Wolfgang Müller photographed children and young adults in St. Petersburg whose center of life is the street. Over the course of nine months he accompanied eight different groups or individuals. He has received important awards for his work.

3. Preis für Vincent Kohlbecher, "Street children in Bukarest/Romania"

The colour photo by the German photographer Vincent Kohlbecher comes from a series of pictures on the subject of street children in Romania. The photo shows two street children on two picture levels: In the foreground, a boy sniffing solvent is blurred. In the background, a girl is happily playing with a dog.

4. Preis für Roger Ballen, "Portrait eines schlafenden Mädchens"

This still life "portrait of a sleeping girl" was taken in 2000 by the South African photo artist Roger Ballen. The picture is part of a photo series on a family from Johannesburg. Ballen has taken pictures of for over 16 years now. The photographer describes his motivation in taking these pictures as purely aesthetic.

Ehrenvolle Erwähnung