World Press Photo receives more than 600 visitors

Nine days since its opening, the exhibition of the 2009 World Press Photo contest at the Casa Garden, near the Camões Garden has received more than 600 visitors. The exhibit will be open until September 22.
According to the Casa of Portugal, in charge of the event for the third consecutive year, the visitor numbers are quite high compared to the first days of the exhibition held last year.
The photo display includes works from 62 media professionals of 22 nationalities. Italian photojournalist Pietro Masturzo’s Photo of the Year 2009 is one of the images featured along with the display.
The sponsor and organiser Casa de Portugal is willing to bring the event annually to Macau. The roving exhibition that will be presented in over 100 cities has been travelling the world since May 2.
Masturzo’s picture depicts women shouting in protest from a rooftop in Tehran on 24 June. The winning photograph is part of a story depicting the nights following the contested presidential elections in Iran, when people shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime protests in the streets. The story as a whole was awarded first prize in the People in the News category .
World Press Photo is run as an independent, non-profit organization with its office in Amsterdam, where World Press Photo was founded in 1955. It aims to encourage high professional standards in photojournalism and to promote a free and unrestricted exchange of information, as well as to support professional press photography on a wide international scale.

2nd prize People in the News Stories

Charles Ommanney, United Kingdom, Getty Images for Newsweek
Barack Obama pauses for a moment before walking out to the podium to be sworn in. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, at the West Front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on 20 January. He was the first African-American in the country’s history to hold the office.