• © Josh Edelson. A boat motors by as the Bidwell Bar Bridge is surrounded by fire in Lake Oroville during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020.
    © Josh Edelson. A boat motors by as the Bidwell Bar Bridge is surrounded by fire in Lake Oroville during the Bear fire in Oroville, California on September 9, 2020.
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Inaugural Covering Climate Now photography prize winners

10 October 2021

Winners in the inaugural Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards were recently announced in 10 categories covering everything from radio, TV, and multimedia to photography, breaking news, and investigative journalism. Awarded each year by the Covering Climate Now coalition (comprising 450 media organisations), the prizes celebrate the best climate reporting of the year. A total of 39 finalists were announced from the roughly 600 entries from 38 countries.

Two winners were announced in the photography category. Josh Edelson, a contributor to AFP since 2021, was recognised for his series, Heart of Fire, which documented the massive wildfires that devasted northern California. “I’ve covered wildfires in California for the past ten years and I’ve never seen anything like what happened this year”, said San Francisco-based Josh Edelson. “The new normal seems to be that every season the fires bring a new surprise”. Edelson’s coverage spanned the initial stages of the fires all the way thought to the destruction of property and livelihoods as the devastation of the inferno became evident.

© Josh Edelson. The Creek Fire destroyed countless homes like this one in Fresno County, California.
© Josh Edelson. The Creek Fire destroyed countless homes like this one in Fresno County, California.

Edelson describes his experiences in covering the fires in his AFP blog, After the Inferno.

© Josh Edelson. Some of the blazes looked like a
© Josh Edelson. Some of the blazes looked like a "wall of fire".

The other winner in the category was Dhaka-based photojournalist Zakir Hossain Chowdhury with his series, Bangladesh’s Hidden Climate Costs, produced for The New Humanitarian. The series features portraits of those confronting the rising sea levels along with documentation of the desperate efforts to hold the water back. Aerial images reveal the vulnerability to communities as a result of climate change.

© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury. Sarder Abul Kashem, 62, sits in his family’s mud-covered home. “When the tide begins, saltwater enters my house and then I sit up with my goats on my bed,” he said. “We are leading life worse than beasts.”
© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury. Sarder Abul Kashem, 62, sits in his family’s mud-covered home. “When the tide begins, saltwater enters my house and then I sit up with my goats on my bed,” he said. “We are leading life worse than beasts.”

View the work of all the finalists on the Covering Climate Now website.

The Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards are made possible by the support of the Michaux Family Foundation, Wayne Crookes, Bob and Sandra Taylor, and a founding grant from the Schumann Media Center.

© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury. A man collects bricks from his house, which is submerged by daily tides. “Our embankment collapsed and our houses have eroded,” said Habibur Rahman Sarder, 56. “We have no space to live, no space to cook food, and no place to grow food.”
© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury. A man collects bricks from his house, which is submerged by daily tides. “Our embankment collapsed and our houses have eroded,” said Habibur Rahman Sarder, 56.
“We have no space to live, no space to cook food, and no place to grow food.”
© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury.
© Zakir Hossain Chowdhury.

 

© Josh Edelson. A melted slide smolders as a playground continues to burn at Pine Ridge school during the Creek fire.
© Josh Edelson. A melted slide smolders as a playground continues to burn at
Pine Ridge school during the Creek fire.

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