Press Photo of the Year depicts destroyed forests in Indonesia

Helsingin Sanomat staffers sweep lion's share of this year's awards

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By Jukka Harju
     
      Helsingin Sanomat photographers collected the lion's share of the prizes this year at the annual Press Photo of the Year awards, which were handed out in Tampere last Friday.
      The share of the spoils was so large that one could almost sense a touch of embarrassment amidst all the satisfaction - of the ten categories with nominated candidates, Hesari staffers came out on top in no fewer than seven.
      Markku Niskanen, the head of the HS picture desk, was delighted at the "all-time jackpot result", but noted that the competition tends to favour reportage and news images, which is exactly what the Helsingin Sanomat staff photographers do on a daily basis.
     
"Our paper really makes an effort with picture material. We do gigs that cost a lot of money, but they also bring a lot in terms of content", commented Niskanen.
      One such trip was made to Indonesia, where photographer Heidi Piiroinen took the shot that was awarded the title of Press Photo of the Year.
      On her way back from an assignment in the jungles of Sumatra, she was faced with a quite astonishing and chilling landscape of razed rainforest.
     
"We just had to stop the car and to climb up a bit higher to get the shot in. I really was not thinking of it as a photograph at the time, so much as an apocalyptic vision. You could see the same view wherever you looked, in all directions and right to the horizon. The sheer extent of it shocked us there and then, and it was even more disturbing than what I had read and learned about the subject", says Piiroinen.
     
The News Picture of the Year also went to a Helsingin Sanomat staff photographer, Mika Ranta, and is coincidentally a rather topical image, in the light of recent events.
      Last summer, Ranta and a HS journalist visited the home of the family of Eveline Fadayel, one of the two grandmothers who were to be deported from Finland.
      "The situation was intimate and rather difficult, with a sad and nervous mood among the family members", recalls Ranta.
      "The family members were naturally aware of the camera, but it did not feel as though the situation was posed in any shape or form. I knew it had the makings of a good image for the article."
     
Also among the prizes was Hannes Heikura, who won the award as Press Photographer of the year for the fourth time of asking. Heikura further took the award for Photo Essay of the Year, with some striking black-and white images of the recession and what it means to people's everyday lives.
     
Two that "got away" from Helsingin Sanomat this time were the prizes for Portrait of the Year (to Jukka Ritola of Tampere daily Aamulehti for his image of the transgender vicar Marja-Sisko Aalto preparing to return to work) and the Sports Picture of the Year, which was taken by Tomi Glad from Savon Sanomat and showed Finnish weightlifter Johan Nyström.
     
     
Details of the prizes and jury comments are given in the English summary linked below, and the photographs can be seen either online, or in the flesh at the TR1 Visual Arts Exhibition centre in Tampere until May 2nd. Opening times on the link below.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / Edited from an article first published in print on 27.3.2010


See also:
  Hannes Heikura again chosen as Press Photographer of the Year (17.3.2008)
  Helsingin Sanomat photographer Hannes Heikura wins Fotofinlandia Prize (24.11.2008)

Links:
  TR1 Visual Arts Exhibition Centre, Tampere
  Press Photos of the Year 2009 - English Summary

JUKKA HARJU / Helsingin Sanomat
jukka.harju@hs.fi