Winners of malaria photo contest announced
On the occasion of World Malaria Day 2013, the Swiss Malaria Group announced the winners of the photo contest “Malaria:The Big Picture” at the Malaria Vaccines for the World conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the winning photos were on display. The winners and runners-up can be viewed via the online exhibition.
Since 2000, thanks to the scale-up of malaria control measures, such as bed nets, insecticide spraying, diagnosis and effective medicines, the world has made major progress in reducing suffering and death associated with malaria. Many countries have been able to eliminate the disease from their borders. Endemic countries are making the commitment to control and eliminate malaria, and new tools and approaches are being developed to support this work. For the first time in history, defeating the disease altogether is within reach.
The fight against malaria has been one of our best investments in global health to date. Yet, these recent gains are increasingly threatened by a shortfall in funding. It is critically important that we pool all possible resources to stay the course, as malaria resurgence will remain a persistent threat until the disease is eradicated altogether.
To celebrate the gains and highlight the critical need to maintain the momentum, between 15 February and 24 March, photographers from around the world submitted more than 700 photos in three categories (people, healthcare & control and research & development) to the contest. The public were then invited to vote before 7 April to determine a shortlist and the final winners were chosen by an international panel of judges.1
First-place winners, selected by the judges, will receive a new Fuji camera and CHF 400 in cash. Runners-up, in second to fifth place, will receive one of a series of cash prizes: 2nd: CHF 400; 3rd: CHF 300; 4th: CHF 200; 5th: CHF 100.
Remarks about the contest
“The competition is one of the strongest I have seen. There is a wonderful combination of 'reportage' and portraits, and together they provide a very impressive selection of photographs highlighting the efforts to help people in malaria-infested locations. I’m happy to have been involved in judging; it’s really important to support photographers who are telling stories about malaria and bringing the issues of prevention and treatment into the public eye.”
- David Burnett, one of the contest’s judges and three times World Press Photo jury member
“The Swiss Malaria Group thanks Fuji Switzerland for their generous donation of three cameras as first prizes, the fifteen organisations2 that provided their promotional support and our expert jury panel for their selection. We hope that the contest will not only raise awareness about malaria but encourage other organisations to join the group and make it even stronger in the years to come.”
- Dr Thomas Teuscher of Roll Back Malaria
“Photos have the ability to open the door on a world never seen before. Photos submitted to the contest have not only opened that door to malaria but have also allowed us to step through and see the bigger picture; the victims of malaria, the tools and interventions that can save them from the disease and the people working to develop those tools. I invite you to see the big picture for yourself.”
- Gerhard Siegfried, Head of East and Southern Africa Division of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
1. David Burnett, Matteo Cardin, Marcel Grubenmann, Katarina Premfors, Damien Schumann, Apal Singh
2. Photographers for Hope, MalariaWorld, Speak up Africa, End Ignorance, Against Malaria Foundation, Africa Fighting Malaria, The Global Fund, VacciNews, Malaria No More, Malaria No More UK, Spread the Net, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN)