shots of a world on fire

They were still stealing pellets and plastic bottles, and the tumult, which was lost in the tear gas, was beginning to fall back. His watch marked the 13:15 of Wednesday, May 3, 2017, and still protected by a vest, a helmet and a mask, the Venezuelan photographer Ronaldo Schemidt (1971) believed that it was time to keep his camera and get lost in the streets surrounding Plaza Altamira A few minutes ago, this corner located east of his native Caracas, one of the most tourist and bastion of opposition to the government of Nicolás Maduro, had become the field of a bloody battle between the National Guard and protesters of the opposition group La Resistencia

That could have been one of the many marches that left last year a little more 150 dead and about 2000 wounded in the streets of Venezuela. "I even thought that everything had stopped there, because the National Guard tanks and motorcycles had become smoke and the young people started picking up their wounded," Schemidt told the phone from the offices of the National Guard. Agence France-Presse. (AFP) in Mexico City, where he lived for 18 years. Behind him, however, and from where he could still hear a group of ten or more hooded men jumping and screaming on a motorcycle that had been taken from a policeman, he heard a roar that stirred everything up. .

I turned to the protesters because I knew that another confrontation might come: those of the National Guard would not stand idly by watching one of their bikes steal as if they were being staged. it was a trophy. But one of the youths launched a Molotov bomb and completely burned it down. I saved it. I walked two or three meters and another demonstrator hit her with a tube, and then I saw a young man whom I knew after his name, José Víctor Salazar Balza (28 years old), standing in front of the motorcycle on fire, "he says. "At this distance, I could see the explosion, and he (Salazar) should have received 90% of the gasoline that caught fire. I started to photograph instinctively, and At that moment José Víctor came out in the midst of the flames.And when he stopped, the fire engulfed him from head to toe.This became a human torch.And never, ever really, I stopped holding the camera in my hands, "he adds

Other demonstrators who were standing nearby rushed with water and clothes to extinguish the living fire in Salazar's body.And from one moment to the next, remembers Schemidt, "he got up and walked about ten meters. Like everyone else, I did not want to be photographed. Show weakness before the enemy is the last thing they would like, and then I decided to withdraw to send it. The last time I saw him, I was waiting to be transferred to the hospital. "

14 seconds recording the entire sequence lasts 14 seconds since Schemidt heard the outbreak until he got the image that in April this year, was awarded by the 61st version of the World Press Photography Contest as the best of the year.In addition to a retrospective covering the 60th anniversary of the independent Amsterdam based organization, Holland, will also be exhibited at the Fundación Telefónica Space from Thursday, June 26.

AFP contributor since 2004, and hired the following year, Schemidt has not heard from José Víctor Salazar until his sister told the press the damage she suffered: "70% of her body had burns of the first and second degree, I understand that the visibility of his case was largely due to the photo that I took from him, "says the photographer, who covered the event s political, social and sports, including the Copa America in Chile in 2015. "But where I love the most it is there that unfold the events that will twist the story," explains -t it.
He gives examples: his objective depicts the Cuban duel after the death of Fidel Castro (2016) and, in Venezuela, the death of Hugo Chávez and the election of Nicolás Maduro in 2013. "All were without any doubt historical facts, but personally the work of a photojournalist, beyond recognitions, is to show what happens without intervention of reality.And I think the picture of José Víctor, over the years and from the sinking of Venezuela, will be the symbol of this shameful crisis that still affects it. "

Refugees and survivors

There was also a second winning photo. We see Aisha, the 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram, a terrorist group and Islamic fundamentalist who is also hiding in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Mali. Performed last September by the Australian Adam Ferguson (1978), and at first sight beautiful and well composed, his image takes on hidden dimensions: after being assigned to a suicide bombardment mission, Aisha managed to flee and escape. find help exploded by explosives.

Distinguished by the World Press Photo as the second best photography of the year, now also composing the sample that will be exhibited until August 26 for free. In total, there are 137 images from 42 authors from 22 countries, including winners and nominees in the 8 contest categories: Contemporary Themes, Environment, General News, Long-Term Projects, Nature, People, Sports and Spot News, who fell to Schemidt's work.

The German Jesco Denzel (1972) received the prize for contemporary themes with an image that highlights the huge informal fishing colony of the Makoko community, the so-called Venice of Japan. Africa, the coasts of Nigeria. Regarded as one of the most beautiful corners of this country, today its inhabitants claim their right to live in peace in the face of the real estate and tourist threat that, a few years ago, could erase it from the map.

A white rhino is the protagonist of motion photography captured by the Englishman Neil Aldridge (1966), winner of the Environment category. Drugged and bandaged by a red ribbon, the animal and one of the tops of the list of 'endangered' species is about to be released in its natural habitat in Botswana after being rescued in South Africa to protect it from poachers. Especially in Vietnam and China, their horns are as desirable as a diamond: they can cost between 20 and 50 thousand euros per kilo, given their medicinal properties and even their smuggling as a recreational drug.

On grass and covered with plastic, there are nearly 80 bodies of the Rohingya ethnic group in Burma. A hundred of them tried to flee aboard a boat that sank on September 28 about eight kilometers from Inani beach in Bangladesh. Although minority in their country, the city of Rohingyas counts today one million inhabitants. However, the laws passed in the 1980s deprived them of Burmese citizenship, and since then they have tried to escape in the search for a new life. The image of Australian Patrick Brown, distinguished in the General News category, went around the world because of its harshness: many of the lifeless bodies that managed to capture the frame, are children and young people.

Long-term projects came this year to Dutch photographer Carla Kogelman (1961) and her series Ich Bin Waldviertel (I am from Waldviertel). The artist follows in the footsteps of Hannah and Alena, two sisters who live in Merkenbrechts, a bioenergetic town of over 170 inhabitants in Waldviertel, an isolated rural area of ​​Austria very close to the border that separates it from the Czech republic. The two spend most of their time together, swimming and playing outside and at home, and Kogelman, who has been photographing them since 2012, intends to show through the carefree days the same village and its way of life supported in bioenergy

In the cabinet dedicated to the Nature section that the Telefónica Foundation erected in its space in Providencia, the image of a bald eagle poking and feasting with the remains of meat in a garbage can also appears from a supermarket in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, USA. The work of photographer Corey Arnold (1972) contrasts the reality that exists: 5,000 people live in the region and about 500 eagles fly over their heads, but when death approaches them, they come back and hunt down the population. It is there that intervenes the objective of Arnold.

Sport is one of the categories that cheats this year: its winner, British Olivar Scarff (1972), chose to shoot in black and white to get a confusing picture of both teams. Football opponents, the Up & # 39; ards and the Downs, fight for the ball at the historic and annual meeting of the Royal Shrovetide in Ashbourne, UK on February 28, 2017. Just the opposite This is the case of Sweden's Magnus Wennman (1979), who won first prize in the Gente section. Her image shows sisters Djeneta and Ibadeta, two Roma refugee women who suffer from the curious syndrome of resignation, which leaves them immobile, dumb, unable to eat and drink, and indifferent to any physical stimulus. The two are respectively two and a half months and six months, without responding to such stimuli. Its causes are still unknown and how long it can last, and even more rare: only refugees in Sweden are suffering today.