Note to Correspondents

EXHIBIT OF BEST PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS OPENS AT United Nations HEADQUARTERS

A powerful visual record of the most significant events of 2007 will open in the Main Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 26 June.  This travelling showcase of nearly 200 photographs represents a selection of the winning works of art in the fifty-first annual World Press Photo worldwide photojournalism contest that took place earlier this year in Amsterdam.

Among the winning images featured in the exhibition is the World Press Photo of the Year 2007, an image by photographer Tim Hetherington of the United Kingdom, for Vanity Fair.  Mr. Hetherington took the photo while embedded with the United States Army in the Korengal Valley, scene of some of the most intense conflict in Afghanistan.

The annual World Press Photo contest, which has been in existence for 53 years, has become a standard of quality in the industry.  Each year, entries are submitted by photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from around the world.  This year, more than 5,000 photographers from 125 countries submitted an approximate total of 80,536 images, nearly all of which were supplied in digital format.  Entries were judged by 13 members of an independent international panel.

World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, where it was founded in 1955.  Its mission is to encourage high professional standards in photojournalism and to promote a free and unrestricted exchange of information.  World Press Photo aims to support professional press photography on a wide international scale.  Promotional activities include an annual contest, exhibitions, the stimulation of photojournalism through educational programmes, and creating greater visibility for press photography through a variety of publications.

The photo exhibit is sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations, in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information.  World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon, Getty Images and TNT Express.  A selection of winning images is available for publication in the press download area on the World Press Photo website at www.worldpressphoto.nl/downloads.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at tel.:  212 963 8531 or Liza Wichmann at tel.:  212 963 0089.

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For information media • not an official record