COLUMN: Photo contest reveals humanity

We were in Montreal last week and I had an opportunity to visit a display of the winning entries in the 2025 World Press Photo contest. The exhibit featured about one hundred of the very best of nearly 59,320 photos entered in the contest, by 3,778 journalists from 141 countries. The photos, which were blown up to a huge size were educational, stunning, and many were tragic and heartbreaking, especially those featuring children.

German photographer Florian Bachmeier took a picture of a six-year-old girl named Ahnelina whose family in Ukraine was forced to flee their home because of repeated bombings by Russian forces. In the photo Ahnelina lies on a bed and stares vacantly at the ceiling. According to the organization Save the Children, millions of kids in Ukraine are at risk of mental health issues due to the war.

Many of them spend countless days in underground shelters. Children are developing speech defects, having horrible nightmares and often are moody, fearful and anxious. The photographer wanted to show how war can impact children and break their spirits.

A photo by Samar Abu Elouf was deemed the very best photo of the year. It shows a nine-year-old boy named Mahmoud Ajjour who lost both his arms when the Israeli army attacked Gaza City in March of 2024. By the end of the year The United Nations said there were more child amputees in Gaza per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Another unforgettable photo by Santiago Mesa, shows three teenage girls mourning while wrapped in colorful shawls that once belonged to their younger sister who has just committed suicide. Their family is part of the Embera Dobida, a nomadic people in Columbia, who have been displaced along with 80,000 others, by escalating armed conflict in their country. Many have fled to Bogota where they face marginalization, food insecurity, living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions and a loss of culture and identity. This has led to an alarming rise in the suicide rate for Embera Dobida teenagers.

A photo by Alejandro Cegarra shows four little boys squished into a shopping cart being pushed by their parents as they wait in line to deal with government officials who will decide whether they can leave Mexico to try and seek asylum in the United States. Some officials will only grant visas if enough money crosses their palms. The family in the photo may be on their way to a special holding camp to wait for visas. These camps, run by corrupt authorities and drug cartels are violent places with precarious living conditions.

Cinzia Canneri is an Italian photojournalist who is documenting the plight of Eritrean women fleeing armed conflict in their country. Both Eritrean and Ethiopian forces use rape as weapons of war. After being repeatedly sexually assaulted, women are shot in the stomach or have sharp objects inserted into their vaginas to prevent them from having more children. In one of Canneri’s photos she shows a young mother tightly embracing her five-year-old daughter. Her husband has left her because she was raped by Eritrean soldiers and that makes her worthless to him. The woman in the photo stares at us with haunted eyes no doubt worried her young daughter will someday suffer her same fate.

The photos we saw in Montreal will haunt me for a very long time. I am reminded of what Nelson Mandela once said, “We owe our children a life free of violence and fear. Their protection must be our first priority.” Mandela said the way humanity treats its children is a reflection of its very soul.