Photography: World Press Photo 2003 is this year's edition of the annual publication of the World Press Photo Competition. It contains the prize-winning images, taken in 2002, in a competition which attracted an entry of almost 4,000 photographers from all over the world, writes Bryan O'Brien.
The book is divided according to the categories of news, arts, sports, nature and the environment, science and technology, daily life, and portraits, and within each of these areas both individual photographs and photo essays can be seen.
The news category contains some very under-stated photography this year and not the kind of in-your-face, blood-and-guts imagery one would expect. Eric Grigorian's portrayal of a young boy mourning at his father's graveside, after the Quazvin Province earthquake in Iran, is a moving black- and-white image of a little boy huddled on the grave clutching his father's trousers.
Winner of the "people in the news" category Carolyn Cole (Los Angeles Times) created a beautifully lit set of 12 colour images depicting the 39-day occupation of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian militants and civilians. Amy Vitale's photograph of an 18-year-old girl burned by Hindu rioters in Ahmadabad, Gujarat, is one of many powerful images in her picture-story depicting the riots in India early last year.
Sport is disappointing. The overall winner shows a Chinese monk, a practitioner of Shaolin Kung Fu, walking a wall, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-style. It's a very ordinary image, taken from behind the subject, and is jointly credited to a pair of Polish photographers, Tomasz Gudzowaty and Robert Boguslawski.
The winning images in arts also leave a lot to be desired. A head shot of a scowling Leonardo DiCaprio, by Dan Winters, scooped the overall award, while second prize went to Emmanuel Scorcelletti for his photo of Sharon Stone posing for the Cannes paparazzi .
The portraits category contains some very nice work. Brent Stirton's essay on boys from the Xhosa ethnic group in South Africa undergoing a circumcision ritual to mark the transition to manhood is stunning. Brightly dressed subjects with strong faces, painted chalk-white and lit artificially against amazing skies make for a surreal set of photographs.
Andrew Burman's photo-reportage on the Serpentine Swimming Club is wonderful. His monochrome images of those who swim year-round in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park in London are simply composed and executed, and depict the daftness and stiff- upper-lip-ness of it all in a charming way. They give the impression that the photographer was someone who had just got a camera for Christmas and walked down to the park to play with it.
Bryan O'Brien is a staff photographer with The Irish Times
An exhibition of work from World Press Photo 2003 is on display in the Eyre Square Centre, Galway until July 13th
World Press Photo 2003. Edited by Kari Lundelin, Thames & Hudson, 156pp, 167 illustrations, £12.95