Amazing image of farmer fighting locusts among photo award shortlist

World Press Photo Contest 2021

THESE stunning photos have all been shortlisted in various categories for this year’s World Press Photo Contest, a global photojournalism competition.

Luis Tato has been nominated for the top award, World Press Photo of the Year, with his image Fighting Locust Invasion in East Africa. It was shot for The Washington Post and captures the struggle of Kenyan farmers in 2020 as the country was invaded by hundreds of millions of locusts, which ravaged crops and devastated the land.

Nominated in the same category is The First Embrace by Mads Nissen for Panos Pictures and Danish newspaper Politiken. Shot in São Paulo, Brazil, it shows care home resident Rosa Luzia Lunardi receiving her first hug in months, from nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza. Covid-19 prevented millions of Brazilians from visiting relatives.

California Sea Lion Plays with Mask by Ralph Pace is nominated in the Environment (Singles) category. It highlights an unexpected cost of the pandemic.

Nominated in the Nature (Singles) category is New Life by Jaime Culebras. It shows eggs from Wiley’s glass frog (Nymphargus wileyi) hanging off the tip of a leaf in the tropical Andean cloud forest in Ecuador, and helps fill in the gaps about a rare species.

One Way to Fight Climate Change: Make your own glaciers is nominated in the Environment (Stories) category. Taken by Ciril Jazbec for National Geographic, it shows an ice cone built in the cold desert region of Ladakh in northern India to provide water for farming. Climate change is causing the glaciers here to recede.

The competition’s winners will be announced online on 15 April during the World Press Photo Festival 2021. Visit worldpressphoto.org for details.

Update: Mads Nissen’s image The First Embrace won World Press Photo of the Year 2021.