Filipina photographers win in 2023 World Press Photo awards

MANILA, Philippines — Two Filipina photographers were among this year's winners of the 2023 contest of the World Press Photo under the Southeast Asia and Oceania categories of "stories" and "long-term projects."

According to the World Press Photo, the chosen works "call attention to some of the most pressing issues facing the world today." These include coverage of the Russian invasion in Ukraine to the faces of the climate crisis across the world.

Hannah Reyes-Morales and Kimberly dela Cruz won their respective regional categories.

Home for the Golden Gays
 

Members of the Golden Gays community unwind at home after a show, in Manila, on 24 July 2022.

Hannah Reyes Morales, for The New York Times

Reyes-Morales's work "Home for the Golden Gays", published on the New York Times last January, was awarded under the "Stories" category. She covered the elder community of LGBTQI+ in Manila who have been living together for decades and who have since been each other's support system.

They were evicted and they ended up homeless after their founder passed in 2012. The Golden Gays eventually started renting a house in Manila in 2018.

Reyes-Morales' work was commended "for portraying the warmth, joy, and dignity" of the Golden Gays.

Reyes-Morales was commissioned as the Nobel Peace Prize photographer in 2021. Aside from the New York Times, her photojournalistic work has been published on the National Geographic Magazine, The Atlantic, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Le Monde, and The Washington Post.

Death of a Nation
 

Jazmine Durana (15) cradles her month-old daughter Hazel, on 2 February 2017, at the wake of her partner John “Toto” Dela Cruz (16), who was shot by men wearing black masks a few days earlier.

Kimberly dela Cruz, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, VII Mentor Program

Dela Cruz's work, titled "Death of a Nation", followed the previous administration's bloody "war on drugs" won the award for "Long-term projects." She has covered the operations since it began, following brutal killings that local and international groups said "mostly target low-income communities." 

"Death of a Nation" documented everything from the scene of the crime to how the murders affected the families left behind.

Dela Cruz's work was commended for "her ability to capture the continued impact on families involved." 

She co-produced a chilren's book on the murder of 17-year-old drug war victim, Kian delos Santos, which won a National Children's Book Award. In 2021, Dela Cruz was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund for Humanistic Photography.