AFP receives three distinctions at the Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondents Awards
Fabio Bucciarelli received the Nikon Photo Award in the Professional Category for “Battle to Death”, a striking series of images taken during the fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo in autumn 2012. His report had previously received several awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award in April and World Press Photo of the year.
Italian photographer Fabio Bucciarelli, 32, an engineering graduate specialized in digital imaging, started working as a photojournalist in 2009. Since then he has covered a number of major conflicts like Sudan and Syria in 2012 and Mali in 2013, with a focus on human rights.
Javier Manzano won the French Ministry of Defence Photo Public prize. He was rewarded for a series of photos unpretentiously entitled “the siege of Aleppo”, taken in October 2012 and previously rewarded at the World Press Photo Contest. One of his pictures of two Syrian rebels holding their position earned him the Pulitzer Prize in the "Photo Magazine” category.
The Mexico-born photographer moved to the United States at the age of 18. He has worked extensively on the US-Mexico border. After starting his career as a photographer and video journalist for newspapers, he then worked for television and online media. He has worked freelance in Mexico, Afghanistan and Syria since his last regular employer, the Rocky Mountain News, closed down in 2009.
Djilali Belaïd obtained second prize in the Television trophy for a story in late June 2012 at the Krak des Chevaliers, the famous Crusader castle held by Syrian rebels in the south of the country. To date, he remains the only foreign journalist to have gained access to this remote area, under army siege and bombed daily.
Djilali Belaïd, 39, has worked as a journalist for AFP since 2006. He covered the Israel-Lebanon conflict of 2006, the Gaza war in January 2009 and other major events in the region (Iraq, Israel, Algeria, Bahrain, Mauritania, Sudan…). From 2008 to 2012, from his base in Beirut, he was in charge of the AFP TV service for North Africa and the Middle East. While there, he went on several assignments in the “Arab Spring” countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and more significantly Syria, where he has already been on eight shooting assignments since the start of the uprising in March 2011. Djilali Belaïd has a scientific background; he holds a Master’s Degree in Tropical Diseases from Marseille Medical School and the Paris Pasteur Institute.
Created in 1994 by the city of Bayeux, the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for War Correspondents reward journalists reporting on conflicts and their consequences for civilian populations, or news stories covering the defence of freedom and democracy.
A total of 55 reports were entered in the competition across different categories: radio, photo, print, TV, long-format TV, young reporter award and web journalism. The jury for 2013 was chaired by photographer James Nachtwey.
In celebration of the Prix Bayeux-Calvados’ 20th anniversary, AFP will hold an outdoor display after the awards ceremony with a selection of 250 images of conflicts around the world taken in the past twelve months.