Curator Statement
This year, like many previous years, has been an eventful year. Viewing nearly 500 submissions—happy, sad, joyful, hopeful—brought tears to my eyes, while I read stories of suffering and struggle, whether in the lives of powerless people or immigrants looking for a better future or people standing up to the government and finally fighting a pandemic that has crippled the world. I had to try to select a cross-section from across all the stories that had been submitted to this year’s State of the World competition, and it has been no easy task, as every story is important and significant in its own way.This selection is only a small part of what our world is going through in these days; a glimpse into the truth of what is really happening around us through the raw, unadulterated lens of the brave photographers who have shared their stories and what they have seen.
