The World Press Photography will be held in the Durban Art Gallery from August 18 to September 12 in the Circular Gallery. This exhibition is a platform for photojournalism and free exchange of information, where works by professional press photographers tell the stories of what happens around the globe. All the prize winners for the past years exhibit their work in this travelling exhibition.

Australian photographer Jack Picone’s picture of a dhow captain on Lamu island in Kenya pulling his boat in at low tide to moor it for the night is just one of the superb images. Another by Peter Ginter from Germany portrays physicist Vincent Vuillemin applying his Buddhist monk training in the particle accelerator tunnel near Geneva. Other images are harrowing, some are poignant, most are filled energy or stark in their realism. All are unforgettable.

Four South African winning photographs are included in the exhibition. Jodi Bieber’s People of Eksteenfontein which won first place in the Portrait Story category as well as her Rugby school for underprivileged children. Themba Hadebe’s dramatic picture Man points gun at a street robber was third in the Spot News Singles. Thys Dullaert’s Thari cinema was placed second in the Daily Life Stories category. Gideon Mendel won second prize in the Arts Singles category for Circus skills workshops for the Millennium Show.

The exhibition contains the World Press Photo of the year taken in Kosovo in 1998 by Dayna Smith which represents a young woman in shock at the funeral of a KLA commander.