Summary
- Mahmoud Abu Hamda won the Nikon Photo Trophy at the 2026 Prix Bayeux.
- The public also chose his reportage from Gaza.
- Jehad Alshrafi received the Young Reporter award.
A child who took his birds with him when he fled home appears in the photograph accompanying Mahmoud Abu Hamda’s double win at the 2026 Prix Bayeux.
The freelance Palestinian photographer won both the international jury’s Nikon Photo Trophy and the Public’s Choice Award for Ce que la guerre laisse derrière elle — “What War Leaves Behind”. The 33rd edition’s results were announced on 10 October, with Lyse Doucet chairing the jury. The awards recognise his reportage from Gaza, rather than an entry in a single-image competition.
The birds that left with the family
Displaced from Beit Hanoun, the child took shelter with his family in a university converted into accommodation. He brought his birds when they fled the bombardment. That detail gives the photograph its specific human context: something of his earlier life has travelled with him to a temporary refuge.
Light picks out the open wings and the child’s face against the dark interior. His gaze rests on the pigeon, keeping their relationship at the centre of the frame. The caption matters: it explains a history of displacement that the photograph alone cannot establish.
Photographing a reality he also lives through
Abu Hamda has worked professionally since 2011, studied multimedia at Gaza’s University College of Applied Sciences and has taught photography. He received the Lucie Awards’ Impact Award in 2023. His work connects the documentation of destruction with the everyday actions of people trying to keep their lives going.
He did not attend the Bayeux ceremony, sending a recorded video message instead. He had submitted the reportage to the jury himself and stressed how much it meant to him that his photographs had been able to travel beyond Gaza’s borders.
The other photography awards
Luis Tato of AFP placed second for his coverage of Gen Z protests in Madagascar, followed by Associated Press photographer Niranjan Shrestha for Nepal: A Revolution in Miniature. The Young Reporter award, which focused on photography this year, went to AP’s Jehad Alshrafi for Endless War and Devastation in Gaza.
Alshrafi also made the photograph of football in Gaza that was removed from the Deauville Sport Images Festival before a court ordered its reinstatement. That is a different photograph from the image accompanying his award announcement here.
What we think
These two images show the range of moments war photography can contain: the immediate violence of an explosion and a personal bond that endures through displacement. For a photographer, a compelling frame and an accurate caption work together; the latter gives the former its journalistic meaning.
