Photographer Eddy van Wessel is the winner of the Silver Camera 2019. He won a photo series about IS families on the run in Syria. It is the third time that the photographer wins the prize and only one photographer copied it: Ben van Meerendonk, in the 50s and 60s. The jury calls Van Wessels work of an unprecedented level.
Van Wessel’s photos are penetrating black-and-white images of IS terrorists and their families leaving their last hiding place. Moreover, according to the jury report, the series would touch on the discussion about whether or not to retrieve Dutch IS children. Van Wessel also won the Canon Silver Camera in 2012 and 2015.
Jury chairman Marc Prüst says that Van Wessel’s series “allows people to enter a completely different world in a very penetrating way. They are almost dystopian images of one of the last strongholds of IS. You see drama, the pain, the effort, it is a very strong series. “
The cash prize of 10,000 euros is awarded annually to the photographer who took the best press photo of the year. According to director Marcel Molle of the De Zilveren camera foundation, the past year in the Netherlands can best be described as ‘the year of protests’.
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