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Nanna Heitmann, Yael Martínez and Jonas Bendiksen win Regional Prizes at the 2022 World Press Photo Contest

Nanna Heitmann, Yael Martínez and Jonas Bendiksen have won Regional Prizes at the 2022 World Press Photo Contest, with the global winners announced April 7

Magnum Photographers

Yael Martínez The hand of a farmer and the "chapulin" knife, used to grate opium gum, handcrafted by poppy farmers. In the 80s, the first record of poppy fields was recorded in the Malinaltepec area and Cochoapa (...)

Three Magnum photographers – Nanna Heitmann, Yael Martínez and Jonas Bendiksen – have won Regional Prizes at the 2022 World Press Photo Contest.

Heitmann was recognized for her 2021 documentation of the summer wildfires that brought destruction and permafrost degradation to the Yakutia region of Siberia, Russia.

The World Press Photo Contest jury commented:

“This story of forest fires portrays the issue in a haunting, yet poetic way. The story is multilayered and each image highlights the climate crisis from a range of angles – from human displacement, to degradation of the built environment, and the impacts on wildlife. The photographer effectively presents the physical effects of rising temperatures in what should be one of the coldest environments on Earth. The work is an urgent call to action.”

Nanna Heitmann As many villagers have done recently, Maria Nogovitsina made an offering to the earth to keep the fires away: she tore up a few Russian-style pancakes and sprinkled the ground with fermented milk. (...)

Nanna Heitmann Two ducks that Yegor Yegorvitch hunted last winter. He says after the fires many animals will disappear because they either died or moved to forests not affected by the fires. Magaras, Yakutia, Rus (...)

Nanna Heitmann Wildfire smoke over the Lena River. Bulgunnyakhtakh, Yakutia, Russia. July 9, 2021. © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos

Nanna Heitmann Dragonflies catching mosquitos while local volunteer firefighters fill up the water truck at a pond before driving to a recently discovered forest fire. Bulgunnyakhtakh, Yakutia, Russia. July 9, 2021. © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos

Nanna Heitmann Forest fire between Magaras and Berdigestyakh. Local volunteers from Magaras are fighting the fire. Magaras, Yakutia, Russia. July 8, 2021. © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos

Nanna Heitmann A woman walking over the Lenin square in Yakutsk. The Russian city of Yakutsk is covered in smog due to the forest fires nearby. "High levels of particulate matter and possibly also chemicals inclu (...)

Nanna Heitmann Burning tree, close to the settlement Kürelyakh. Summer wildfires have produced a record amount of carbon emissions in Russia's Siberian region of Yakutia. Environmentalists fear the fires, fuelled (...)

Nanna Heitmann Despite local authorities warnings to stay indoors to avoid choking fumes some people escaped to the beach in Yakutsk. Monitoring suggested the toxic smoke is one of world’s worst ever air pollutio (...)

Nanna Heitmann Dmitry Artemev, a white Shaman and Artist. He says because we stopped living with nature, the nature is angry with us. People in Yakutia have always turned to higher forces for help with illnesses, (...)

Nanna Heitmann Local volunteers fighting forest fires near Magaras. For more than a month local men from Magaras were fighting the fires themselves, trying to save their hunting grounds, hay fields, and firewood. (...)

Nanna Heitmann Last ferry crossing the in smoke covered Lena River. Shortly after ferry and flight connections were stopped. Monitoring suggested the toxic smoke is one of world’s worst ever air pollution events. (...)

Nanna Heitmann Temperatures climbed up to +37 degrees in the capital Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city, and locals escape to a glacier in the region, called "Buluus". Thanks to dozens of metres of permafrost unde (...)

Nanna Heitmann Fire fighters take a rest near Magaras. Siberia, Russia. July 2021. © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos

Nanna Heitmann Siberia, Russia. June 2021. © Nanna Heitmann | Magnum Photos

Nanna Heitmann Villagers are consumed by the battle with fire, shoveling trenches to keep it away from their homes and fields, quenching their thirst by digging up the ice sheets embedded in the ground. Yakutia, (...)

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Bendiksen’s provocative work on fake news and the news industry was hailed, particularly as explored in his 2021 publication The Book of Veles.

The jury commented:

“The Book of Veles is a fresh, conceptual project on a highly relevant topic. The photographer consistently maintains a strong narrative throughout the project and intelligently portrays what it means to be living in an age of disinformation. The use of an innovative technique combined with symbolism and irony adds meaning throughout the body of work and makes a bold political commentary. Furthermore, the photographer addresses the moral authority of his own photographic work and presents a form of meta-analysis – using photography as a tool to comment on the state of photography and highlight how vulnerable we are to fake influences in a shifting industry.”

Jonas Bendiksen The small Macedonian town of Veles (population 50,000) placed itself on the world map during the US elections in 2016, when it became an epicenter for the production of fake news. Looking for a way (...)

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Martínez was lauded for his ongoing work with the indigenous poppy cultivators in Guerrero, Mexico, who gradually turned to the illicit trade as their traditional livelihood gradually became untenable.

The jury commented: “This project is a dramatic, people-centric story. It provides a subtle commentary on violence while excluding graphically violent moments, in order to center the community. This is achieved through the effective use of an aesthetic and multilayered technique which gives a mysterious quality. This intentional approach is used to powerfully symbolize the marks of trauma and loss in a community that the photographer himself has experienced personally.”

World Press Photo Contest global winners will be announced on April 7, 2022.

Yael Martínez Abuelo-Estrella. An elder in the Garza hill. For the Na Savi people, elders are respected since they contain wisdom and connection with our mother earth. Every December 31, the Na Savi indigenous c (...)

Yael Martínez A landscape of The mountain at night. Intervened photography (image maniupluated by Yael Martinez). Guerrero, Mexico. February 12, 2021. © Yael Martínez | Magnum Photos

Yael Martínez A child plays inside her home in the comunnity of Loma Canoa in Cochoapa el grande.Although Cochoapa el Grande is one of the poppy producing municipalities, the poverty rates are among the lowest i (...)

Yael Martínez A wedding of the indigenous community Na Savi in Arroyo Prieto. Guerrero, Mexico. January 19, 2021. © Yael Martínez | Magnum Photos

Yael Martínez Animal sacrifice for a festival in the community of Cochoapa Mexico. In Guerrero, Mexico there are communities which still perform pre-hispanic ceremonies. They are ancestral Meso-Americans who s (...)

Yael Martínez A woman stands near to an altar in Cochoapa el Grande after a celebration. Entire families are employed for the task of scratching the poppy flower, from the smallest to the elderly, including wo (...)

Yael Martínez Poppy farmer in Malinaltepec Guerrero. Malinaltepec is a Mepha community, where the history of the poppy is connected to the history of migration. The families that do not emigrate to work as agr (...)

Yael Martínez Felipa Garcia Reyes planting corn and beans with her family in Huehuetepec Atlamajalcingo. Many of the indigenous families depend on their crops of corn, beans and squash for food.The government (...)

Yael Martínez The Na Savi indigenous communities celebrating a ritual at a sacred hill. A large part of these sacred hills in the ritual landscape are compromised since around them are poppy fields and the vio (...)

Yael Martínez For the native communities, the nahuals were sorcerers who could turn into animals and these had healing and magical powers. Guerrero, Mexico. December 12 2020. © Yael Martínez | Magnum Photos

Yael Martínez The cultivation of the poppy becomes a weapon, a weapon that juxtaposes two cultures and visions of seeing the world, the preservation of an ancestral culture versus the entrance to the capitalist (...)

Yael Martínez Poppy flower. The opium gum extracted from the poppy flower is transformed into heroin in Mexico and almost entirely exported to the United States and Canada. Guerrero, Mexico. 2021. © Yael Martínez | Magnum Photos