UNICEF Photo of the Year

Each year, UNICEF Germany and GEO Germany (from the publishing house Gruner +Jahr AG & Co KG) grant 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.

Swedish Photographer Niclas Hammarström is the winner of the competition “UNICEF Photo of the Year 2013”. He is honored for his photo series on the life of children in the war-torn Syrian town of Aleppo.

Niclas Hammarström, Sweden

Syria's “forgotten” child victims

Photographers working in crisis regions hate war. They refuse to accept injustice and violence as an irrevocable part of human nature. It is not the reporters who are cynical trying to give a voice or a face to the suffering and dying victims of war but rather those who have become used to the suffering.

Swedish photographer Niclas Hammarström, a father of three children, traveled several times to the war-torn Syrian town of Aleppo. His goal was to show the power that war possesses over children. The destruction, the incredible suffering and despair have left him deeply moved. In a hospital, he met eleven-year-old Dania who was injured by shrapnel while playing on the street. Can you ever forget the look of her eyes?

Click on a picture to enlarge

Swedish photographer Niclas Hammarström (Kontinent Agency) has traveled several times to Syria since the war started almost three years ago. His photo reportage captures the life of the children in Aleppo caught between the frontlines.

Take action: international petition for the children of Syria

UNICEF and partners have issued an impassioned appeal to the general public, urging it to voice its outrage at the devastating impact on children and alarming long-term consequences of a lost generation, as the Syrian conflict approaches its fourth year.