AFP photographer John Wessels received two nominations in the 2019 World Press Photo of the Year Award, including one for this photo of a Congolese health worker waiting for a suspected Ebola patient (John WESSELS)

The Hague (AFP) – Photographers for Agence France-Presse received four nominations Wednesday in the 2019 World Press Photo of the Year Award, with the winners to be announced at a gala event in April.

Kinshasa-based photographer John Wessels received two nominations in the General News-Stories category including for a series of pictures taken during an Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Staff photographer Brendan Smialowski in Washington also picked up a nomination in the General News-Singles category for his picture of Donald Trump leading French President Emmanuel Macron by the hand.

Pedro Pardo, based at AFP’s bureau in Mexico City, was nominated in the Spot News-Singles category for his picture of a group of Central American migrants climbing the border fence between Mexico and the United States.

In the top World Press Photo of the Year category six images were selected, three by photographers from Getty Images.

This included the now famous picture of a small Honduran girl, crying as her mother is searched by a US border patrol agent, taken by John Moore.

Also in the running are Brent Stirton, with a striking image of a member of an all-female anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe; and Chris McGrath’s action picture of a unidentified man trying to hold back the press at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, during a probe into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Judges selected 43 nominations from some 78,801 images entered by 4,738 photographers from all over the world, the Amsterdam-based organisers said.

This year, the prestigious award also sees the introduction of a major new award called the World Press Story of the Year Award.

“This award is on a par with the World Press Photo of the Year Award,” the organisers said.

Three photographers have been nominated in the Story of the Year Award and their subjects include the “migrant caravan” and war-torn Yemen.

The winners will be announced at a gala event in Amsterdam on April 11.

AFP’s Ronaldo Schemidt took top honours in the 2018 competition, last year winning the World Press Photo of the Year Award with a fiery image of a masked Venezuelan protester in flames.

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