John Moore's Ebola photographs in Liberia win prestigious prize

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/23/john-moore-ebola-photographs-liberia-win-prize

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They are wretched and difficult to look, at but John Moore’s photographs taken during the Ebola outbreak in the Liberian capital Monrovia were an important call to arms, helping to mobilise aid more urgently. On Thursday they won him the biggest prize at the world’s largest photography competition: L’Iris d’Or, the professional photographer of the year prize, at the 2015 Sony World Photography awards.

The New York-based American photographer is a special correspondent for Getty Images and spent four weeks in Monrovia last summer when it was the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak.

The judges said his work was an example of great documentary photography. In a collective statement, they said: “John Moore’s photographs of this crisis show in full the brutality of people’s daily lives torn apart by this invisible enemy.

“However, it is his spirit in the face of such horror that garners praise. His images are intimate and respectful, moving us with their bravery and journalistic integrity. It is a fine and difficult line between images that exploit such a situation, and those that convey the same with heart, compassion and understanding, which this photographer has achieved with unerring skill.”

Moore won the overall $25,000 prize, chosen from 13 professional categories including current affairs, for which he was winner.

His photographs have been praised for their power and being early in exposing of the scale of the epidemic in Monrovia, helping to instil more urgency in the international aid effort.

In an interview, Moore said: “The scenes of sickness and death I witnessed were devastating for me to see and photograph. I will always be grateful to those grieving family members who agreed to allow me into their lives to document such powerful moments, in order to show the world that their country needed more international assistance.”

Other winners named at the ceremony in London included the British photographer Simon Norfolk, who won the landscape category for his images of the Gormenghast-like Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya.

Moore won from a vast field in a prize now in its eighth year. There were 173,444 images entered, including 87,505 professional entries.

Armin Appel, an amateur German photographer, was named the overall Open Photographer of the year for his image, Schoolyard, which was taken while he was paragliding and shows the landscape, like an abstract painting, of Biberach an der Riss, Germany.

An outstanding contribution to photography prize was also given to the celebrated Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt. Examples of his work will go on display at Somerset House in London as part of an exhibition accompanying this year’s awards between 24 April-10 May.