Dane wins world photo award

Refner's winning entry

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Danish photographer Erik Refner has won the prestigious World Press Photo of The Year award with a picture of the body of an Afghan baby boy refugee.

Photographs of the World Trade Center tragedy and the conflict in Afghanistan dominated the news categories in this year's entries.

But ironically the winning image of the Afghan child was shot three months before the world's attention turned to the region.

Refner, 31, who gets a cheque for 10,000 euros, works for the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. A photographer from the same newspaper won the award in 2000.

The black-and-white image depicts six aged arms and hands, extending from all sides of the frame, drawing a white blanket over the body of a one-year-old.

COUNTRY PROFILE At a glance: Afghanistan Provided by CountryWatch.com

The picture also was part of a story package on Afghan refugees awarded second prize in the category People in the News.

The jury, which unanimously chose the picture from more than 49,000 entries, said it wanted to make a statement by saying that troubled regions of the world should be taken "a little more seriously" before they become areas of crisis.

"We are drifting in a vacuum of indulgence. We have to take responsibility for what's going on," said Roger Hutchings, the chairman of the jury.

Refner was still a student on an internship when he travelled to northern Pakistan to do a story on refugees fleeing drought and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan.

"A lot of people wanted to cover that issue at the time," Hutchings told The Associated Press, but they couldn't find the sponsors.

Refner made the photograph while he was doing his 18-month training at the Berlingske Tidende newspaper, which ended in September.

He then returned to the School of Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, to do the last six months of his photojournalism study.

Refner will receive his award from Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen at an April 21 ceremony. The annual contest, now in its 45th year, is sponsored by the nonprofit World Press Foundation, based in the Dutch capital.

The photo of the year was chosen by a 13-member panel of picture editors and photographers who gathered in Amsterdam from February 3-14.