Holyrood snaps up chance to host best of the year's photos

A HOLYROOD exhibition showcasing some of the world's best photographs of the past year opens today amid controversy over the inclusion of a picture of a soldier killed in action that US military chiefs had tried to stop being published.

• Charles Ommanney caught Barack Obama in a reflective moment before his inauguration. Picture: AFP

The World Press Photo show at the Scottish Parliament contains stunning images of war zones, natural disasters and sporting events. The images on display were chosen from around 100,000 entries submitted by almost 6,000 photographers from 128 countries.

The overall winning entry was from Italian Pietro Masturzo, who captured women shouting their dissent from the rooftops of Tehran at the result of Iran's disputed presidential election in June last year.

However, one of the most talked-about images in the exhibition is by photographer Julie Jacobson, of US Marine Joshua Bernard after he had been struck by a grenade fired at him during a Taleban ambush in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2009.

The image shows the fatally wounded Lance-Corporal Bernard being tended to by colleagues. He lost his leg in the attack, and later died on the operating table.

The marine's family and the US Pentagon objected to the photograph being published, but the lifting of a ban on images of American military killed in action saw it released.

Associated Press agency photographer Julie Jacobson, who captured the controversial image, said it showed the "reality" of war.

Micha Bruinvels, World Press Photo co-ordinator, who is helping to run the exhibition at the parliament, said that the image of L-Cpl Bernard would attract "lots of interest" from the public.

He said: "It's about freedom of information and there will be people who will be interested in all this."

Other striking images in the exhibition, which runs until 28 August, include a picture by Charles Ommanney of President Barack Obama pausing before making his inauguration speech in Washington DC.

A more light-hearted photograph by David Guttenfelder features a US soldier dressed in pink "I Love NY" boxer shorts and flip-flops while engaged in a gunfight with the Taleban.

An image by Mohammed Salem captured an Israeli bomb exploding over Gaza, while Oliver Laban-Mattei recorded street riots in Iran amid allegations of rigged elections.

Another hard-hitting photograph, taken by Rina Castelnuovo, shows a man hurling wine at a Palestinian woman ahead of a festival in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Other images on display at the free exhibition include photos of Australian bushfires, Zimbabwean villagers discovering a dead elephant and the body of a suspected drug dealer in Mexico.

A section is also given over to sport, including shots of Tiger Woods flipping golf clubs, England cricketers in action at the Oval and images of American football matches.

The exhibition, which also includes nature and portrait sections, is being staged at Holyrood for the fifth year running. Last year nearly 60,000 people visited the displays.