Canadian photographer wins top World Press Photo prize

A Canadian photographer has snapped up the top prize at the 49th annual World Press Photo competition.

The "haunting" image of an African woman and her malnourished child by Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly was named the World Press Photo of the Year 2005.

O'Reilly captured the winning shot while in thetown of Tahoua in northwestern Niger last August. In 2005, Niger suffered massive food shortages when it was devastated by locusts and the worst drought in decades.

His image shows a one-year-old infant pressing his tiny fingers against the lips of his mother, who had brought him to an emergency feeding clinic run by Doctors Without Borders.

"I was actually very sick on this day and I couldn't go out and shoot anywhere else,"the Dakar, Senegal-based O'Reilly recalled in an interview with CBC News on Friday morning.

"So I just sat in this clinic for several hours, shooting away and occasionally sitting down to take a rest. [The winning photo] was actually taken during one of my moments of rest, as I was watching the interaction between mother and child," he said.

"The image seems to have stuck and struck people in a way that I guess I never would have expected."

O'Reilly's photo "has haunted me ever since I first saw it," said James Colton, chair of the international jury for the prestigious awards.

"It has stayed in my head, even after seeing all the thousands of others during the competition. This image has everythingbeauty, horror and despair. It is simple, elegant and moving," he said.

Nearly 4,500 professional photographers from 122 countries submitted more than 83,000 images for consideration in this year's event.

"This image has everything: beauty, horror and despair. It is simple, elegant and moving." Photo jury chair James Colton

Considering the intense competition, O'Reilly's win is even more significant. A former arts reporter in Canada, he joined Reuters as a freelance correspondent in 2001 and is nowits chief photographer forwest and central Africa.

"I was working in Africa where there was never a multimedia team and I was always the one who was taking the pictures to go with my stories," he said.

"I come from a background as a text journalist and writer, and I'm fairly new to photography. I'll be the first to admit that I have a lot to learn about it."

The World Press Photo judges awarded prizes in 10 themed categories, such as "spot news singles" or "general news stories," to 63 photographers.

O'Reilly will be honoured and receive his cash prize of 10,000 euros (about $13,700) at anawards ceremony inAmsterdam in April. Prior totheceremony, there will be a three-day event featuring lectures, discussions, an exhibition of all the award-winning images and a special display of O'Reilly's work.