Samuel Aranda (born 1979) is a Spanish

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

, best known for winning World Press Photo of the Year 2012.

Early life

Aranda was born in

Santa Coloma de Gramenet Santa Coloma de Gramenet (), informally simply known as Santa Coloma, and formerly as ''Gramenet de Besòs'' between 1936 and 1939, is a municipality in Barcelonès county, in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the south-east side of the Catal ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Career

Aranda began to work as a photographer for newspapers ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'' and ''

El Periódico de Catalunya EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

'' at the age of 19. Two years later he traveled to the Middle East, where he covered the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

for the Spanish news agency EFE. In 2004 Aranda begun working for

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

(AFP), covering stories in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The photojournalist association ANIGP-TV awarded Arandas' photo series, about African immigrants trying to reach Europe, with the Spanish National Award of Photography. Since 2006 he has worked as a freelance photojournalist. In 2011 Aranda covered the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

and

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

for The New York Times. In 2012 he was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. His winning picture shows a woman embracing her son, wounded during clashes against the rule of President

Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Abdullah Saleh Affash (21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession (an interview recorded in a YouTube video), he was born in 1947.4 Decembe ...

Sana'a Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

, Yemen, part of the Arab Spring. In 2014 he documented the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leona and Liberia for The New York Times. In 2016 he received the Ortega y Gasset award for his photographs on the migration crisis in Greece. During the next years he developed personal projects in Mali and Egypt, and received a grant from the BBVA foundation for a project to document the Nile. He photographed the COVID pandemic in Spain for The New York Times. Since 2023 he lives in Paris, and is a member of the British agency Panos.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aranda, Samuel Spanish photographers People from Santa Coloma de Gramenet 1979 births Living people