AMSTERDAM - A U.S. photographer won the top prize in the World Press Photo competition Friday with an image of a police officer searching a debris-strewn home in Cleveland, Ohio to ensure evicted residents had left after a mortgage foreclosure.
Anthony Suau's winning photo for Time magazine shows the officer, handgun drawn, peering into an open doorway inside the house, which is filled with overturned furniture and boxes.
The image, shot on March 26, illustrates the economic crisis that began with the U.S. housing market and spread around the globe.
"The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It's a double entendre," said jury chairwoman MaryAnne Golon. "Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages."
She said that the photo was both excellent and addressed what the jury saw as the most important global issue of 2008.
Other jury members noted that people around the world could identify with the evicted family. Juror Ayperi Ecer said the image "visually is both clear and complex. ... 2008 is the year of the end of a dominant economic system."
Nearly 5,600 photographers of 124 nationalities submitted images for journalism's most prestigious photo contest. The jury spent 13 days this month evaluating more than 96,000 photos.
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