aetherworld.org

The winning photo of the 50th annual World Press Photo Contest of 2006 has been submitted by US photographer Spencer Platt of Getty Images. It shows a group of young Lebanese girls driving through a neighborhood in South Beirut, devastated by Israeli bombings. The picture was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah when thousands of Lebanese started returning to their homes.

“It’s a picture you can keep looking at. It has the complexity and contradiction of real life, amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious.”, says jury chair Michele McNally about the image.