Press releases and newsletter

Abd Doumany received first prize in the Spot News category and an award of excellence in the News Picture Story category for his images of child victims of Syrian government air raids in the rebel-held town of Douma.
Doumany, a 25 year-old freelance photographer, was born in Damascus and lives in the suburbs of the Syrian capital. He has covered the Syrian uprising since the beginning, starting his career as a photographer in 2013 and working with AFP since 2014.
His coverage of the situation in Douma earned him second prize in the General News Stories category of the World Press Photo 2016 and the Silver prize in the 2015 CHIPP (China International Photo Contest) in the War and Disaster category.

Yasuyoshi Chiba won first prize in the Portrait category for his image of the Brazilian Claudio Vieira de Oliveira who suffers from arthrogryposis.
This congenital condition is characterised by contractures and limb and muscle stiffness.
Chiba, a Japanese photographer based in Rio de Janeiro, studied photography and holography in Tokyo.
He began his career at the Asahi Shimbun and then became a freelance photographer, moving to Kenya in 2007 where he worked with AFP and covered post-electoral violence. He then moved to Sao Paulo and has worked for the agency in Rio since 2013.

Johannes Eisele received first prize in the Recreational Sports category for his image of a young Mongolian boy playing basketball after taking care of horses in Khui Doloon Khudag, some 50 kms west of Ulan Bator.
Johannes Eisele, 36, began his photography career in Germany where he was hired by AFP in 2010. He has been based in Shanghai since 2014.

Abbas Momani received the award of excellence in the Spot News category for his image of a Palestinian family struggling with an Israeli soldier who was trying to detain a boy. The incident was described in a post called ‘A boy, a soldier and a near catastrophe’ on the AFP.com blog Correspondent.
Abbas Momani, aged 44, graduated in photography from the University of Jerusalem and started his photojournalism career with Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds in 1998. He joined AFP in 2000.

Philippe Lopez received the award of excellence in the Feature Picture category for his image of Japanese rescue workers in the centre of Kathmandu on April 29 2015 after the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck Nepal.
Philippe Lopez, 42, has worked with AFP in Asia for 17 years. He began work with the Agency as a freelance in Cambodia in 1999 and was based in Shanghai from 2009 to 2011. Since then he has been based at the AFP Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong and is moving soon to the Agency’s offices in Paris.