Lu Guang, NPPA 1st Prize winner for Photojournalism 2010
An Environmental Story, Lu Guang
Lu Guang photographically capture the Chinese province Shanxi, which is one of the most polluted places in the world. The rate of birth defects in this region is six times higher than the national average. The subject Guang is capturing is momentous, and the images he has captured I felt were genuine and compassionate. The journalist manage to tell a story through a small series of imagery combined with a small amount of text taking the viewer to a world of anguish and pain.
After thirty years of reform and opening-up, China is still developing its economy at a rapid rate. As a consequence, in some regions of the country, environmental pollution by industries has become a major threat to the health of local populations. High rates of cancer and birth defects
Sun Xiaojun, 45, who works in the fields, can no longer move her extremities. Village of Zhanggiao along the polluted Hong River, Wugang City, Henan Province.
The sewage plant of the Fluorine Industrial Park discharges its untreated waste into the riverbed of the Yangtze River through a 1500 meter-long pipeline, Changshu City. Jiangsu Province. June 11, 2009
Noxious gases are released every day from burning caol fields, Ordos city, Inner Mongolia, October 5, 2009
River bank of the Yellow River, pollted from chemical waste and sewage that is discharged into the river, Wuhai city, Inner Mongolia, September 6, 2009
Shanxi Province is the most seriously polluted region in China today. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. April 15, 2009
Along the Yellow Sea coastline, numerous sewage pipes from heavy industries are embedded in the beach; some of them even extend to the deep sea. Sheyang, Jiangsu Province. April 28, 2009
Smoke from a coal power plant, Shizuishan city, Ninxia, September 7, 2009
The fields along the Yangtze River are polluted by sewage from the factories of the Maanshan Industrial Park. Anhui Province. June 26, 2009
Gu Xiaoxin was a worker at the Baolong Chemical Factory for 8 years. He was fired in February 2009 after he found out he had intestine cancer. He has payed 50,000 yuan in medical costs by himself and is worried about the next medical expenses. Since his operation he has had to use a colostomy bag. Nantong city, Jiangsu province, December 2, 2009
The city of Zhenjiang’s Titanium Powder Factory discharges chemical sewage straight into the Yangtze River: only 1000 meters downstream from this sewage outlet is the source for the water intake of the Waterworks of Dangyang City. Jiangsu Province. June 10, 2009
Many defective babies are abandoned in Shanxi Province every year. Kong Zhenlan, from Qi County, who makes her living scavenging, fosters every abandoned baby she finds. She now takes care of 25 children. April 14, 2009
Recycling garbage. The industrial waste of the Taixing Chemical Industrial Park is heaped along the banks of the Yangtze River. Jiangsu Province. May 15, 2009
Others
Burning volcanic material covers the interior of a house in Argomulyo village, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The village was badly damaged by the eruption of mount Merapi, which started late last October. This is one of a series of images which won Kemal Jufri second prize in the People in the News category.
This macabre image highlights the desperate plight of people in Niger during a famine brought on by drought. The carcasses are local farmers' animals that have starved to death. Meat traders in the area are buying the dying or dead animals for a fraction of the going rate from farmers desperate to get what they can to feed their families. The Image won Marco Di Lauro first prize in the Contemporary Issues Singles category.
Standing on a frozen surface at dawn in Hokkaido, Japan, this stunning image of whooper swans won Stefano Unterthiner second prize in the Nature Stories category.
Daniel Berehulak won first prize in the People In The News Stories category for this image. During August and September Pakistan was subject to heavy floods. Berehulak's painterly image captures the scramble for food as victims battle the downwash from an army helicopter during relief operations in Dadu.
Underwater photographer Reinhard Dirscherlwon second prize in the Nature Single category with this image of Atlantic sailfish as they attack Spanish sardines off Yucatan peninsula.
(Image: Omar Feisal/Reuters)
This odd-seeming image actually captures a slice of everyday life in Mogadishu, Somalia. It won Omar Feisal first prize in the Daily Life Single category.
