EPA / Landov
Samuel Aranda’s heart-stopping image of a wounded man burying his head in the shawl of a female relative claimed the top spot on Friday in the World Press Photo of the Year contest for 2011 images. The New York Times photo, which shows a veiled woman in Yemen clutching a man after he was injured in an Arab Spring demonstration in October, was the winning entry among 101,254 submissions in the competition. Photos poured in from 5,247 photographers in 124 countries and included compelling images from the aftermath of Japan’s tsunami, the uprisings in Tahrir Square, and the ongoing plight of global warming. “What I would really like is for this photo to help the people of Yemen,” Arnanda said in an interview with the British Journal of Photography after learning of the award. “I think it’s a country that is often forgotten.”