APCOM

Intensity, evocative power and the capacity to grab a fragment of reality: a picture must have all these qualities to deserve a prize, according to World Press Photo, the Dutch foundation that since 1955 awards the best images published on newspapers and magazines all over the world by dividing them into ten categories, from sport to daily life, from art to 'spot news', definitely the most considered class.

The picture awarded as Photo of the Year 2007 doesn't make any exception. The international jury of the 51st annual contest chose a colour picture of the UK photographer Tim Hetherington which was taken on September 16th 2007. It shows a US soldier resting at an Afghanistan bunker, named after a soldier from his platoon who was recently killed by insurgents. Jury chairman Gary Knight explains the decision: "This image represents the exhaustion of a man and the exhaustion of a nation. We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line."

From today until May 25th, the contest's best photographs are on display at Galleria Carla Sozzani in Como avenue. After Milano, the exhibition is going to stop over in many other cities (Athens, Sydney, Paris, Roma and Lisbon).Year after year, the number of images that wish to be chosen increases: for the edition 2008 the foundation received 80,536 photographs, taken by 5,019 pictures coming from 125 countries.

For the first time Zimbabwe is represented: Bold Hungwe was bestowed the second prize in the 'spot news' category: he immortalized the escape of some supporters of the nation's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, from water-cannon blasts after the police barred them from attending a rally in the capital Harare last February. Once again, pictures don't undergo any censorship: that's also why they manage to offer more than a glance on our planet's events.