UNICEF Photo of the Year 2024
Each year, UNICEF Germany has awarded 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 2024. Credits Text: Peter-Matthias Gaede for UNICEF.
First Prizes
Israel / State of Palestine: Shock, pain and grief have many faces
They survived the horrors of the Hamas massacre in their kibbutzim on October 7, 2023. They are four, ten and 13 years old, or 17 and taken hostage for 51 days. Their faces, such as that of eight-year-old Stav, are a window into their souls: they show confusion, desolation, and anguish. Israeli photographer Avishag Shaar-Yashuv portrayed them in a hotel that was temporarily used as an emergency shelter by many of the victims of the Hamas attack. As can be seen in Stav’s face, Avishag Shaar-Yashuv has hauntingly captured the look of children who see their previous lives lie completely in ruins.
They survived the bombing of residential areas in Gaza by the Israeli air force. They are two, four, five, nine, 13 or 15 years old. They have been dug out from under rubble. They are paralyzed, have lost their eyesight, arms, legs, hands, often their parents and sometimes even their entire family. Their faces show confusion, desolation, and anguish. Palestinian photographer Samar Abu Elouf portrayed these children in a hospital in Qatar, where they were brought to safety. Among them are Dareen, 11, and her brother Kinan, five years old, the only survivors of a family wiped out by an air strike. This picture, reminiscent of old master still life paintings, vividly shows the dignity of children even in the worst emotional distress.
The Jury of the UNICEF Photo of the Year, acutely aware of the very different numbers of victims in Israel and Gaza, did not presume to establish a ranking of suffering. Regardless of who is to blame from whose point of view, two photographers on both sides of the front have contributed equally to painting a universal picture of the fate of children during the war. Their pictures show no blood, but restraint. They are a cautious yet striking portrait of a serious trauma. These haunting images will continue to serve as a warning to us even when the guns hopefully fall silent one day. For the first time in the 25-year history of the UNICEF Photo of the Year, the jury has therefore awarded two first prizes.
Photographers: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, Israel, and Samar Abu Elouf, Gaza, State of Palestine (for The New York Times)