2016 has been rich in projects for our photographers. They have covered stories from all over the world, ranging from the war in Afghanistan, the king’s death in Thailand, large waves of refugees coming to Sweden, or the election of 45th American president. Reporting about breaking news in one thing, but to shed light on the lives of the ordinary people who have to face the consequences of these world-shifting events is where the true challenge is. And this is where the Kontinent photographers have been fantastic this year again: finding, working hard, and bringing back the underreported stories.
In March 2016, Anders Hansson was awarded Photographer of the Year in Sweden, and we are very proud to count 3 Kontinent photographers among the nominees in the Picture of the Year 2017 competition: Anna Tärnhuvud, Anders Hansson, and Niclas Hammarström.
In our collective exhibition “Transforming our World”, Kontinent photographers have come together to illustrate the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and show in our way the consequences of our continued inaction as well as the hopes for a better future.
Here the photographers bring you their best of 2016 in pictures.
Sapeurs people pose for a picture in i Kinshasa, Kongo.
Photo: Per-Anders Pettersson / KontinentMalins Blom is riding her skate inside the hospital corridors of Danderyds sjukhus in Stockholm. 'Radical Rehab' as she calls it. Malin was hit by a car when she was on her way to a birthday party. For four weeks she laid sedated with multiple brain haemorrhages and broken bones throughout the body. Doctors believe that the skateboard wedged behind the backpack saved her from breaking her back. Photo: Anna Tärnhuvud / Kontinent / AftonbladetKopani, Russia/Ukraine, March 17, 2016: When Russia took over Crimea many people at the peninsula were very pleased of finally returning to as they described it, the motherland. While Russia celebrated to have broadened the Federation, most countries in the rest of the world demanded for Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine, and called the annexation illegal. No solution to the Crimea-crisis has yet been presented and the international community does not recognise Crimea as a part of Russia. Instead the peninsula is targeted by international sanctions and its economy has been hit hard. A sector that has been affected more than others is the farming industry which consists mostly of family-owned small-scale farms where the family has no other income than what is given to them by the land. Here, 10-year old Isa is keeping a watchful eye over the family's sheep. Prior to the sanctions, trucks came to his village to buy the family's sheep, but now they have stopped to come and Isa's family has lost most of their income. The future might not have been what was hoped after the Russian take over, but even so a large majority of the Crimean's do not want to go back under Ukrainian rule.
Photo: Jacob Zocherman / KontinentBirgitta and Bengt Bohlin have been married since 1958. They still spend their summers in their cottage in Bohusln, now with a few more naps than before.
Photo: Moa Karlberg / KontinentBefore the oil boom, camels were the most important status marker for rich sheiks - and almost nothing has changed. Camels are still an important status symbol, but no longer have a direct vital function. Instead, it is through success on the racetrack a camel can give its owner priceless honor and respect.
After each workout camels get a refreshing treatment.
Photo: Casper Hedberg / KontinentMassawa is located on the coastline to the Red Sea and is Eritrea's main seaport.
Photo: Johan Persson / KontinentHaya Ali Zrik and her family arrived to Gotland autumn 2015. They got their own house in a summer vacation village. This year they had to leave the village and movie in together with several other families at a new refugee housing.
Photo: Karl Melander / KontinentScientists from the Zambia Carnivore Programme are removing a snare from a male lion in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. A growing threat to lions, snares are often set by local farmers with the aim to catch antelopes or other smaller animals for food. When lions get caught, however, they are strong enough to break loose and bring the snare with them. This leaves the lion roaming the wild with the snare, that gradually tightens and leads to a slow death. Luckily, the scientists got to this male in time. Part of an ongoing 360/VR project for National Geographic. Photo: Martin Edström / KontinentA café in Kadıköy, Istanbul. Photo: Magnus Sundberg / KontinentAmir Heidari began to smuggle refugees to Sweden and Europe in the early 80s. According to several sources, he smuggled more than 200,000 refugees, making him one of Europe's most famous smugglers, after Raoul Wallenberg. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud / KontinentIn early September 2016 Jeanne, her husband Patric and their daughter Patricia found out that the breast cancer turned out much worse than expected. Photo: Jörgen Johansson / KontinentAfternoon in Maryinka, Ukraine. Monya is looking at the enemy positions just hundred meters away through his scope.Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentLashhar Gah, Afghanistan. Said, 2, has been shot in the head. The eye can´t be saved and now the doctors hope that Said doesn't have any permanent brain damage. It´s common the Taliban use children to smuggle ammunition and weapons. In the backpack that Said carried when he was found injured, the doctors found ammunition. Photo: Niclas Hammarström / KontinentThe expansion of mining in Kiruna and Gllivare/Malmberget means that large parts of these communities must be moved. Some buildings of cultural and historic importance are relocated. This Malmberget house from 1911 weighs 200 tonnes and is 22 by 10 meter.
Photo: Fredric Alm / KontinentPatricia proudly shows her room. This is her safe place. She is ten years old and both of her parents died of Ebola. Despite this fact, she is still one of the lucky ones. At the children's interim center, in the district of Moyamba in Sierra Leone, she gets food, school books and therapy to deal with the trauma and sorrow.
- I think of Mom and Dad every day. When I wake up in the morning, I sing a song that my mother and I liked to sing. It makes me calm.
In the future, she would like to be a singer. But most of all she dreams of a new family.
Photo: Pi Frisk / KontinentPixee Fox is a plastic surgery celebrity, whose goal is to as closely as possible resemble a living cartoon.
She has already undergone a large number of extreme plastic surgeries, among them removing 6 of her ribs in order to tight-lace her waist. Photo: Margareta Bloom Sandebck / KontinentElection Night in New York, USA, November 8-9, 2016.
Happy Trump supporters celebrating the victory on the streets of New York. Photo: Ola Torkelsson / KontinentWednesday, November 9th 2016. The storm. The world wakes up to the news of a newly elected american president. On Sergels torg, in Stockholm, a man stands alone and plays american jazz standards. The streets are quiet and the sound coming out of his trumpet is sofly muted by all the snow that fell the night before during the storm.
Photo: Clment Morin / KontinentEdilia Varrera Teletor, seven years old stands on a dried out corn field in Aldea Las Rosas, Quich.
She is malnourished and so is her two-year-older sister. Guatemala has one the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. Malnutrition in Guatemala is closely linked to distribution of land. Three percent owns 70 percent of all land in Guatemala.
Photo: Jesper Klemedsson / KontinentLazum Htoi San, a K.I.A. rebell injured in a Burmese army shelling of Tsin Yu Bum, a mountain top with a frontline outpost, arriving at the army hospital in Laiza, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentKing Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is dead. Thousands of Thais queue outside Grand Palace in Bangkok to view late king's Bhumibol Adulyadej coffin.The government has declared a year of mourning and asked everyone to wear black or white. Tourists aren´t expected to dress in the same way as Thai people, but showing respect will be appreciated by locals.Photo: Magnus Laupa / KontinentThe tourism industry is suffering in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Since the Arab spring, and the subsequent bomb attack on a Russian charter plane en route from the city in October, 2015, tourists are far in between.
Photo: Linda Forsell / KontinentHelena in our bathroom. Photo: Daniel Ekbladh / Kontinent
