!VAR HAGENDOORN

World Press Photo 2006

Three weeks ago the winners of the World Press Photo 2006 were announced. I've included some of my personal favourites. The Guardian has a slideshow of all of this year's winners.

I love Denis Darzacq's high speed photos of street dancers floating in the air. I’m pretty sure we will see imitations in some advertising campaign soon.

I also thought José Cendón’s series of photos taken in a psychiatric hospital in Burundi very striking. Many photos show the grim reality of war, poverty and crime from around the world. Since I'm a photographer myself as well I often try to imagine the position of the photographer when he or she took the photo. I have great admiration for Maria Stenzel's stunning series of penguins living on the unforgiving and rarely visited South Sandwich Islands near Antarctica.

The street scene and the photo of the buzzards fighting over a hare seem almost choreographed.

The World Press Photo of the year went to Spencer Platt for a photo of young people driving through the ruins of a bombed neighbourhood in Beirut. Every newspaper and magazine that I checked interpreted the photo as showing young affluent Lebanese disaster tourists wearing designer clothes and designer sunglasses and driving an expensive sports car. Some journalists decided to look for the people in the car to find out who they were. As it turns out the real story is quite different. (And here).

So don't judge too soon if you see a photo. Ask yourself what you see and if any of what you think you see may be biased by your unconscious beliefs and attitudes.

Unfortunately with every new year, last year's winners and runners up are removed from the World Press Photo website.