The Contest Designed by Photojournalists for Photojournalists

Compete with the very best in still and television photojournalism, in picture editing, and Web editing. Now in its eighth year, the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) is the world's leading digital photojournalism contest.

BOP is a project of the National Press Photographers Association.

1st Place, Enterprise Picture Story (large markets)

Carol Guzy/The Washington Post

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“Every minute, every hour, pregnant women die in Sierra Leone,” says Amadu Sesay, brother of Jemelleh Saccoh who arrived with her aunt at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown with pregnancy complications for an emergency Caesarean section. Later that day she was dead. Sierra Leone has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world: one in eight women die in childbirth, compared with one in 4,800 in the United States and one in 48,000 in Ireland, according to the United Nations. Many fatal outcomes could be preventable with basic medical care, which is often absent after a decade of civil war that decimated an already fragile infrastructure. The revolving door of death silently takes place in the shadows of other global health threats, which garner humanity’s concern. Poverty, cultural influences and a lack of doctors, supplies and transport are among the factors that contribute to the issue and an alarming infant mortality rate. Women arrive at the hospital too late after complications arise that traditional birth attendants cannot manage. Halls of these hospitals-of-last-resort in West Africa echo with wails of grief as families mourn a lifeless mother, a stillborn child, or both.

Judging for the Best of Photojournalism is sponsored this year by:

On-site Still Photography judging was powered by Aperture.