EX-DAILY NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER WINS ACCLAIMED AWARD.Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff WriterWINNETKA - A former Daily News freelance photographer won one of photojournalism's most prestigious awards Friday for his image of an Iranian boy clutching his dead father's trousers after a devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. earthquake leveled his village. The international jury of the 46th annual World Press Photo Contest selected Eric Grigorian's picture for its 2002 photo of the year out of more than 53,000 entries. Grigorian, a freelancer with the Daily News from 1999 until May 2002, said he was roused out of bed at noon Friday when an official with the organization called him with the news. ``Obviously, I was surprised. I had to look out the window to make sure everything is real, that I was not in a dream state.'' The gripping black-and-white picture shows the weeping boy squatting squatting /squat·ting/ (skwaht´ing) a position with hips and knees flexed, the buttocks resting on the heels; sometimes adopted by the parturient at delivery or by children with certain types of cardiac defects. in the dirt on the edge of a mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple, usually unidentified human corpses. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave. , one of many that soldiers were digging for some 500 victims of the June 23, 2002, quake Quake - A string-oriented language designed to support the construction of Modula-3 programs from modules, interfaces and libraries. Written by Stephen Harrison of DEC SRC, 1993. in northwestern Qazin province. Grigorian, 33, said he was working on an unrelated photo project in Tehran when the 6.0 magnitude quake centered 300 miles north of the city struck. He rode out to the region as an independent freelancer and came upon one village where he saw its inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. burying dozens of corpses in a mass grave. ``I saw this kid there and I took a few pictures. Just looking at him I could see what happened. I think it's a very emotional photo.'' Though he never spoke to the boy, others at the scene confirmed that the boy's entire family died in the earthquake, Grigorian said. Grigorian took the photo while on assignment for the New York-based photo agency Polaris Images. The Armenian photographer is based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and lives in Winnetka. He will receive the award and a cash prize of $10,800 in Amsterdam on April 27. The annual World Press Photo competition had a record 53,597 entries, taken by 3,913 professional photographers from 118 countries, for the 2002 prize. Prizes were given to 55 photographers whose work was entered in 18 categories, ranging from spot news to daily life. The winning photographs were selected by a nine-member panel. Their selections will be exhibited around the world and published in book form. The Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. contributed to this story. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) An Iranian boy clings to his dead father's pants near the freshly dug grave in this award -winning photo by Winnetka resident and former Daily News freelancer Eric Grigorian. A 6.0 magnitude temblor devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. the Changooreh village, killing some 500 people. Erig Grigorian/Polaris (2) GRIGORIAN |
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