AMSTERDAM (February 8, 2008) - Britian's Tim Hetherington won the top World Press Photo award for news photography today for a picture of an exhausted American soldier in a bunker in Afghanistan. The image was from a series of photographs that he shot for the magazine Vanity Fair in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, the pictures running with author Sebastian Junger's story, "Into the Valley of Death."
Hetherington's winning image "shows the exhaustion of a man and the exhaustion of a nation," jury chairman Gary Knight said. "We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line."
Afghanistan's Korengal Valley is a strategic passage wanted by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Junger reported, and it has been among the deadliest of battlefields for American forces. Daily life for troops there is exhausting, climbing in rocky caverns and fighting in mountain terrain, and deadly. Hetherington photographed the men of the Second Platoon, Battle Company, of the Second Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, as the fought to control the valley.
Hetherington's winning photograph captures the exhaustion at the end of a day's fighting as a soldier rests at the Restrepo bunker at a firebase. The bunker was named after Pfc. Juan S. Restrepo, 20, of Pembroke Pines, FL, a soldier from his platoon who was killed by insurgents who attacked his unit with small arms fire on July 22, 2007.
The top winning single is also in a picture story by Hetherington that won second place in General News Stories.
Getty Images won five honors, including top awards in Spot News Singles and Spot News Stories for John Moore's photographs of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.
American photojournalists who won prizes in World Press Photo this year include Carol Guzy of The Washington Post; Chris Detrick of The Salt Lake Tribune; College Photographer of the Year Travis Dove; Justin Maxom of Aurora Photos; Benjamin Lowy of VII; Carolyn Drake of Panos Pictures; Chuck Close of New York magazine; Arlana Lindquist; Jeff Hutchens of Getty Images; Damon Winter of The New York Times; and David Liittschwager of National Geographic.
World Press Photo says that prizes for 2007 were awarded to 59 photographers from 23 nationalities in their 51st annual contest.
Junger and Hetherington discuss their experience in the Korengal Valley, and the story behind "Into the Valley of Death," in an online video of the Vanity Fair magazine Web site here.
A complete list of World Press Photos winners is online here.
