Scheduled for October 3 to 9, the ceremony dedicated to war correspondents will pay tribute to Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff and Shireen Abu Akleh, who died this year in Ukraine and the West Bank in the exercise of their function.
German photo-reporter Thomas Dworzak, a specialist in the Caucasus, will chair the 29th edition of the Bayeux Prize for war correspondents scheduled for October 3 to 9 in the Normandy town. The vocation of this former director of the Magnum agency, now 50 years old, was born of a “mix between a taste for provocation, a desire to travel, an interest in stories, stories, and in particular those around my maternal grandfather who died in the war or the deportation of my father’s family”he explains in a press release of the Prize organized by the city of Bayeux, the department of Calvados and the Normandy region. “I grew up in Bavarian tranquility, a provincial environment, very protected. I needed an extreme challenge”he adds.
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Self-taught, Thomas Dworzak won the 2nd Bayeux Prize in 2000 for a report in Chechnya produced after the departure of the Russian forces. “An English journalist hired me as a Russian translator. By bringing her back to Chechnya, I was able to take exclusive photos of the Chechen exodus. I took the best photos of my life as a translator», explains the photo reporter. His work will be published in Newsweek, Paris Match, the New York Times.
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Beyond, Thomas Dworzak “traveled the world from Afghanistan to Iraq, via the former Yugoslavia, Iran”, according to the organizers of the Prize. While covering the 2015 refugee crisis, he designed Europe – a photographic guide for refugees, a self-produced book distributed free of charge to migrants. Thomas Dworzak says to himself “eager and curious to be able to discuss the treatment of the Russian invasion in Ukraine with his colleagues. I have the impression of having made my career under the shadow of the leader (Putin’s note). It has established an unhealthy relationship with neighboring countries. Between adoration of a romantic Caucasus and fierce repression of any approach to freedom.he comments.
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The 29th Bayeux Prize will pay tribute on Thursday, October 6, as every year, to journalists who died in the exercise of their function, and in particular to the Frenchman Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, who died on Monday in Ukraine, and to the Palestinian Shireen Abu Akleh , 51, killed on May 11 in the West Bank, said Tuesday Aurélie Viel, head of programming for the Bayeux Prize, interviewed by AFP. Applications for the Bayeux Prize must be sent before June 7. The reports must have been produced between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022. A prize of 7,000 euros is awarded in each category.
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