Photo by Laurent Van der Stockt pour Le Monde / Getty Reportage, 2018 Winner
Congratulations to the winners – more than 10,000 photographs from 82 countries were submitted to the DAYS JAPAN International Photojournalism Awards 2018. DAYS JAPAN is a monthly photojournalism magazine launched in March 2004 which aims to tell the truth from the perspective of the victimised civilians and not those exercising authority through military or other power
First Prize: Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde/Getty Reportage: “The battle for the last stronghold of Daesh. The old city of Mosul”
1,5 million civilians were still in Mosul when the battle against Daesh began, and it lasted for more than 8 months, but in the Old City, where they were surrounded and trapped, the jihadists of the Islamic State organisation resisted much more than anywhere else in Mosul. It took 4 months, half of the time of the whole operation, to take it back from their control.
The fighters of Daesh become more and more violent with the population, and the civilians had no other solution to flee rather than wait for the arrival of the Iraqi forces in their area. That meant that after living for two years under the terrible control of Daesh, after months of bombing on their area, they had to run, under the threat of the snipers of Daesh, under the shelling of both sides, in the middle of the fight of the frontline, from the IS side to the government side, at the paroxysmal moment of the confrontation of the fighters.
Second Prizes:
Paula Bronstein / Getty Images “The Unwanted, The Rohingya”
Karl Mancini “Ni Una Menos”
A drone shot of the largest refugee camp housing the Rohingya, Kutupalong camp. Photograph by Paula Bronstein / Getty ImagesThird Prizes:
Ozge Elif Kizil “Rohingya Exodus”
Alain Schroeder “Brick Prison”
Arka Dutta “Mousuni – The Sinking Island”
Special Prize by Jury:
Phil Hatcher-Moor “Nuclear Ghosts”
Nick Hannes “Dubai. Bread and Circuses”
Mushfiqul Alam “The Great Exodus: People with No Land”
Erik Nylander “In her footprints”
Yuki Iwanami “Fukushimma Keep searching for daughter”
See more winning images and a list of all the finalists here.