In Pictures: Powerful, striking images at World Press Photo Exhibition 2018

For the fourth year running, the World Press Photo (WPP) Exhibition is held in Singapore with its collection of award-winning pictures from around the world. Presented by The Straits Times, this year's exhibition features 161 photos by 42 photographers. When: Until Oct 28; Where: National Museum of Singapore, Levels 1 and 2; Open daily from 10am to 7pm (free admission)

Updated

Published

October 16, 2018 at 10:40 AM

Lorri Cottrill, 45, smokes an e-cigarette in her home in Charleston, West Virginia. She is the leader of the biggest neo-nazi and right wing organisation in the US, National Socialist Movement, in West Virginia. Generally speaking white people are more intelligent than black people, says Lorri, who is full of extreme opinions. PHOTO: ESPEN RASMUSSEN

Aisha, 14, stands for a portrait in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria on Sept 21, 2017. Aisha was kidnapped by Boko Haram then assigned a suicide bombing mission. After she was strapped with explosives, she found help instead of blowing herself and others up. PHOTO: ADAM FERGUSON

Portraits of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, taken in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, last September. Clockwise from top left: Aisha, 14; Maryam, 16; Balaraba, 20; and Falmata, 15. The girls were strapped with explosives and ordered to blow themselves up in crowded areas, but managed to escape and find help instead of detonating the bombs. Boko Haram – a Nigeria-based militant Islamist group whose name translates roughly to “Western education is forbidden” – expressly targets schools and has abducted more than 2,000 women and girls since 2014. Female suicide bombers are seen by the militants as a new weapon of war. In 2016, The New York Times reported at least one in every five suicide bombers deployed by Boko Haram over the previous two years had been a child, usually a girl. The group used 27 children in suicide attacks in the first quarter of 2017, compared to nine during the same period the previous year. PHOTO: ADAM FERGUSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A child jockey straddles the starting gate in anticipation of mounting his horse on Moyo Island, Sumbawa, Indonesia. Behind, trainers prepare to position the horses in the blocks. Once a game between neighbours to celebrate a good harvest, horse racing was transformed into a spectator sport by the Dutch in the 20th century to entertain officials and nobility. The distinctive features of Sumbawa racing are the notoriously small horses and fearless child jockeys, aged five to 10, who ride bareback, barefoot and with little protective gear. Maen Jaran (the Indonesian name of the game) takes place during important festivals and holidays throughout the year at race tracks across the island and remains a favourite pastime for Sumbawans. PHOTO: ALAIN SCHROEDER/REPORTERS

People are thrown into the air as a car ploughs into a group of protesters demonstrating against the Unite the Right rally in the US city of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug 12 last year. The attack killed one and injured 19 others. James Alex Fields Jr, the alleged driver, has been charged with first-degree murder. The white nationalist rally was originally organised to protest against Charlottesville’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It drew counter-protests. Fields drove his car at high speed into a sedan, propelling it and a minivan into a group of anti-racist protesters. Fields is in custody awaiting trial. PHOTO: RYAN M. KELLY/THE DAILY PROGRESS

A young white rhino waits in a boma, blindfolded and partially drugged after a long journey from South Africa, before being released into the wild in Botswana as part of efforts to rebuild Botswana's lost rhino populations. For 10 years now, poachers have been killing an average of three rhinos every day in South Africa alone. Botswana is saving rhinos from poaching hot spots in South Africa and re-establishing its own populations of rhinos having lost all of its rhinos by 1992. PHOTO: NEIL ALDRIDGE

People wait to sort through waste for recyclable and saleable material, as a garbage truck arrives at the Olusosun landfill, in Lagos, Nigeria. Humans are producing more waste than ever before. According to World Bank research, the world generates 3.5 million tonnes of solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago. Landfills are filling up and the World Economic Forum reports that by 2050, there will be so much plastic floating in the oceans that it will outweigh the fish. PHOTO: KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN/NOOR IMAGES

Rohingya refugees walking on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River after fleeing Myanmar, on Oct 2 last year. Attacks on the villages of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and the burning of their homes, led to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing into Bangladesh on foot or by boat. Many died in the attempt. According to Unicef, over half of those fleeing were children. In Bangladesh, refugees were housed in existing camps and makeshift settlements. Conditions became critical; basic services came under severe pressure and, according to a Doctors Without Borders physician there, most people lacked clean water, shelter and sanitation, bringing the threat of disease. PHOTO: KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES

Djeneta (right) has been bedridden and unresponsive for two-and-a-half years, and her sister Ibadeta for more than six months, with uppgivenhetssyndrom (resignation syndrome), in Horndal, Sweden. Djeneta and Ibadeta are Roma refugees, from Kosovo. RS has so far affected only refugees aged seven to 19, and mainly those from ex-Soviet countries or the former Yugoslavia. For many, the syndrome is triggered by having a residence application rejected. Granting residence to families of sufferers is often cited as a cure. PHOTO: MAGNUS WANNMAN

Swim instructor Chema, 17, snaps her fingers as she disappears underwater on Dec 28, 2016, in Nungwi, Zanzibar. PHOTO: ANNA BOYIAZIS

Along the oriental shore of the Omo River near the Karo village, children are playing by jumping in the sand. Karos are a small tribe with an estimated population between 1,000 and 3,000 people and lives thanks to fishing and cultivation made possible by the flooding of the Omo River. Following the construction and commissioning of the Gibe III dam, the flooding of the Omo River has stopped, depriving the Karo population of the possibility of cultivating those products that today they’re forced to buy at the market. ST PHOTO: FAUSTO PODAVINI

Thousands of people converge on Xuyi County every summer for the annual crayfish eating festival. With rapidly expanding incomes, Chinese consumers are demanding increasing amounts of protein and dairy products in their diet. ST PHOTO: GEORGE STEINMETZ

Civilians line up for aid distribution in the Mamun neighborhood of west Mosul on March 15, 2017. PHOTO: IVOR PRICKETT/ NYTIMES

A large group of young Rohingya watch houses burn just beyond the border at Leda Makeshift Shelter in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, on Sept 9, 2017. ST PHOTO: MASFIQUR SOHAN

Kijini Primary School pupils learning to float, swim and perform rescues in the Indian Ocean off of Mnyuni, Zanzibar. Daily life in the Zanzibar Archipelago centres on the sea, yet the majority of girls who inhabit the islands never acquire even the most fundamental swimming skills. Conservative Islamic culture and the absence of modest swimwear have compelled community leaders to discourage girls from swimming - until now. For the past few years, the Panje Project has been providing full-length swimsuits for women and girls to encourage them to get into the water, teaching them not only swimming skills, but also empowering them to challenge existing barriers. PHOTO: ANNA BOYIAZIS

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