World Press Photo 2021: Mexican photographer was awarded for portraying a doctor who treats COVID-19

The foundation World Press Photoannounced this Thursday the list of 45 winners of their annual contest photojournalism (WPP 2021), where the Mexican stood out Ivan Macias with his image “COVID-19 First Responder”(COVID-19 emergency personnel).

With this photograph, Macías obtained the second place in the category “Individual Portrait”. Captured on May 19, 2020, at the beginning of the health emergency, the hurt face of a female doctor by the marks left by the mask and goggles after the end of their shift in a COVID-19 hospital in Mexico City.

The doctor reported that in a 12-hour shift, wear the protection mask between 5 and 6 hours, which caused a series of injuries to his nose and for which he has some patches in the face to be able lessen the damage to your face.

The foundation highlighted the high number of people health workers of Mexico who are in an intense battle against the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the tepid response of the Mexican government to the global emergency.

The first cases of COVID-19 in Mexico were confirmed in late February. In March, President López Obrador had downplayed the severity of the virus threat, allowing large public rallies and preparations for the tourist season to continue.

He relates that for November of last year, it was estimated that in Mexico there were 78,200 infections among health workers, resulting in the highest rate in the world. As the government continued to downplay the pandemic: “Exhausted healthcare workers became increasingly critical of policies that did not enforce stricter anti-COVID regulations”, add the text.

Iván managed to compete with five more finalist photographers from other countries. The other two winners in the WPP 2021 “portrait” category were: Oleg Ponomarev from Russia, who obtained the first flirt with “The Transition: Ignat” Y Tatiana Nikitina, Russia, who won third place with his photography “In Flight”.

The theme of the pandemic dominated this year’s pageant: Another winning photograph was “The First Hug” by Mads Nissen, who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the image of August 5, 2020, Rosa Luzia Lunardi, 85, is seen hugged by nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza, at the Viva Bem nursing home in São Paulo. At the same time that they wear face masks, a plastic isolates them from direct contact.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards were made virtually through a live broadcast to announce the winners of the photo of the year.

Macías is a photographer from Mexico City. According to the description that WPP collects, he is passionate about the ability of the image to generate awareness and provide reflection. The Mexican began to photograph in 2016 and little by little began his career collaborating initially for Time Out Mexico and for Proceso magazine.

He has won the International Photography Awards in the non-professional category in 2019, and in the professional category in 2020, as well as several other photographic contests in Mexico.

In the 2020 edition, Alejandro Prieto won second place in the Nature category with the image “Roadrunner Approaching the Border Wall”, which he captured in April 2019, in Arizona county on the border between the United States and Mexico.

For 2019, Yael Martínez obtained second place with a series of photographs under the name “La casa que bleeds”, in the category of Long-term Projects, images that were captured between 2012 and 2018 and in which he portrayed the disappearance of people in Guerrero, after the loss of three family members.

Pedro Pardo was awarded third place in the news category, with the photograph “Border crossing”, it should be noted that he also obtained third place in the 2012 edition in the category of contemporary issues to the series “The war of the posters of the drug ”, in the 2012 edition of the contest.

In the 2016 edition, in the Nature category, Anuar Patjane obtained second place, with the image “Whale Whisperer” and Sergio Tapiro obtained third place with his image “The power of nature”

Photographer Christopher Vanegas took third place in the Contemporary Issues category, with the photo “Victims of Organized Crime,” in 2014.