ROBIN HAMMOND - WORLD PRESS PHOTO 2017
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© Robin Hammond / NOOR
We are pleased to announce that NOOR photographer Robin Hammond has been awarded 2nd prize in the People category of World Press Photo 2017 for his portrait of 41 year old Hellen Alfred from Juba in South Sudan.
"I am delighted to receive this award. For six years I’ve been working to highlight the challenges faced by people living with mental health problems. People like the South Sudanese woman in this picture, Hellen. No other health issue impacts more people, yet is so neglected. Stigma eliminates conversation, and the very existence of people living with mental health problems. It is my hope that the thousands around the world who will now see her face will ask - who is this woman? What is her story? That is the moment mental health stops being about an abstract and ignored issue and starts being about individuals who deserve to be seen, and need to be heard."
Robin Hammond
Hellen's portrait is part of Robin Hammond's In my world, a project which seeks to humanize a neglected and abstract issue by allowing people living with mental health problems to be seen and heard and, as a result, have mental health become the global health priority it deserves to be.
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NOOR's Managing Director Clement Saccomani on the WPP award:
"Congratulations to Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici for the World Press Photo of the Year and also to all winners of 2017 World Press Photo Contest!
NOOR Photographer Robin Hammond won second prize on People - Singles category for his beautiful portrait of 41 year old Hellen Alfred from Juba in South Sudan. Robin Hammond and his NOOR’s colleagues are confronting the dominant narrative using visual storytelling with integrity and passion. As a group, they exist to inspire empathy and action. Congratulations Robin!"
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ABOUT IN MY WORLD
To document the mental health impact of conflicts and disasters in sub-Saharan Africa, photographer and human rights campaigner Robin Hammond travelled to eleven countries. He spent time with the displaced in refugee camps, former child soldiers in slums and saw the impact of corruption on facilities for the mentally ill. The resulting work went on to become the book: ‘Condemned: mental health in African countries in crisis,’ and was published in magazines globally. The work has been exhibited on every continent, and went on to win some of photojournalism’s most prestigious awards.
Robin spent five years working on his mental health project. In the course of that work he came to recognize that a lack of space for the voices of people living with mental health problems is a major impediment to a world where mental health is recognized as a global health priority. In addition, stigma and silence form twin barriers in the path towards a society where people living with mental health problems can be seen, and valued, as equal members of the communities in which they live.
With In my world, Hammond and his not for profit organization, Witness Change, are working to contribute towards breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and to the amplification of these marginalized voices.
Robin is working with a group of partners including Handicap International, other not for profit organizations, and a major educational institution to share stories of people living with mental health problems and document the situations in which they must live.
In my world, will be live from June 2017.
