| ‘Signal’ ★ | worldpressphoto.org |
African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia—a tenuous link to relatives abroad. Djibouti is a common stop-off point for migrants in transit from such countries as Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, seeking a better life in Europe and the Middle East—© John Stanmeyer/VII
John Stanmeyer won World Press Photo of the Year for the above image, he describes it as follow:
Have been asked countless times today what this photograph, Signal, means to me. While standing on the shores of the Red Sea that evening in Djibouti City, it felt as if I was photographing all of us — you, me, our brothers and sisters — all desperately trying to connect to our loved ones. In this tenuous period of human migration where despair and hope simultaneously intertwine, we seek to find comfort, a sense of balance, a desire to be home, reconnecting to something stable, reassuring. This photograph of Somalis trying to “catch” a signal is an image of all of us as we stand at the crossroads of humanity, where we must ask ourselves what is truly important, demanding our collective attention in a global society where the issues of migration, borders, war, poverty, technology and communication intersect.
Iconic shot of our generation, rightful win.