Dr Chen Wei Seng's Joy At The End Of The Run

First prize in the sports single action category, 56th World Press Photo Contest

Description: 12 February 2012, Batu Sangkar, West Sumatra, Indonesia; a jockey, his feet stepped into a harness strapped to the bulls and clutching their tails, shows relief and joy at the end of a dangerous run across rice fields. The Pacu Jawi (bull race) is a popular competition at the end of harvest season keenly contested between villages.

As expected, he had to wait for hours under the sweltering sun. perhaps taking hundreds of photos before arriving at this perfection.

 

World Press Photo of the Year 2012 winner

The 55th annual World Press Photo Contest winner is Samuel Aranda (Spain). His winning photo shows a woman holding a wounded relative in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011.

Samuel Aranda was working in Yemen on assignment for The New York Times.

The winner of the contest receives the equivalent of about RM40,000, as well as "the most prestigious and coveted award in photojournalism".

The main prize is given to the image that "... is not only the photojournalistic encapsulation of the year, but represents an issue, situation or event of great journalistic importance, and does so in a way that demonstrates an outstanding level of visual perception and creativity".

9/11: The moment before the second plane hits the World Trade Center

To me, this is the definitive image of 9/11.

United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222, was hijacked by 5 al-Qaeda terrorists 30 minutes into its flight, and then crashed it into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, New York City, killing all 60 people aboard plus the hijackers.

Time of impact: 9.03am, which was 17 minutes after the first plane, an American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into the North Tower.

Due to TV cameras being trained on the WTC at that moment, the impact was seen live by a worldwide audience.

The South Tower collapsed 56 minutes after the crash.

British Major's POW message of defiance against Hitler

Major Alexis Casdagli was a British soldier during World War II.

He was captured at the battle of Crete and marched up Greece for six weeks before being flown to north Germany.

He was a POW in 4 camps for 4 years, between June 1941 and April 1945.

During his time in a camp in Dossel-Warbung he stitched the following tapestry, using red and blue thread taken from a disintegrating pullover belonging to an elderly Greek general.

Done in Morse Code, the inner border reads "God Save The King" while the other border reads "F*** Hitler".

Amazingly, his Nazi captors never found this out, and instead unwittingly displayed this needlework in all the 4 camps where he was held captive, and the Germans even asked him to giving stitching classes to his fellow officers.

If he was found out, he could've been killed.

World Press Photo of the Year 2010 winner. This photo by Jody Bieber beat 5,600+ other photogs and 108,059 images