April 19, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Interaction, a coalition of 160 international aid groups, had an ambitious goal for a photography contest it just concluded: to capture the meaning of international relief and development in a single picture that would both transcend cultures and translate easily to an American audience.
In past years InterAction had asked for submissions in specific areas of humanitarian work, like education or medical assistance, but this year no specific categories were given. Photographers were limited to one entry.
InterAction, whose headquarters are in Washington, says it received 110 photo submissions from 59 organizations for its annual contest, the fifth of its kind.
Six winners were selected: five for outstanding submissions and one grand-prize winner.
Michel duCille, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer for The Washington Post, picked the grand-prize winner.
He chose a photo depicting women sharing coffee in a women’s center run by the International Rescue Committee in the Abu Shouk camp near El Fasher, in the Darfur region of Sudan.
“The image was tangible,” Mr. duCille explains. “I felt as though I could be amongst them, sipping coffee, amidst the horrors. The photo transcends race and culture to me.”
The winning shot was captured by Peter Biro, a senior communications officer at the International Rescue Committee. He has been a journalist and photographer for more than 15 years in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Mr. Biro says he took the photo right after a peace agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and parts of the Darfur rebel movement. However, he says, the agreement did little to improve conditions for people in the camps, especially women, who he says were increasingly the victims of rape or abuse.
“It was often over a cup of coffee that women were able to speak about their lives — the good and the bad — and find support from one another,” Mr. Biro said in an e-mail message. “I was trying to capture this oasis of calm in the madness and suffering that continues to affect hundreds of thousands in Darfur. I hope I was also capturing some of the resiliency of these women, the importance of support networks and how small gestures (like a coffee and a chat) can make a world of difference.”
Mr. Biro and the other contest winners will be honored next week at InterAction’s annual meeting in Washington.
