2015 tested the world of photojournalism as truly dramatic events dominated the headlines. Many of these events forced us to re-examine the morals which guide us and photography has been at the forefront of this. Images were published across the media which the public and policy makers could not ignore.
As in previous years, Kontinent’s photographers have documented the leading stories, as well as bringing to light causes still in the shadows. We worked, and continue to work on several migration stories from Syria to Sweden and throughout all of Europe.
Kontinent’s photographers also recorded the chaos and horror that resulted from the terrorist attacks in Paris; they used drone footage to provide a unique perspective on the drought in California and were there to witness the heavy rains in Nepal.
Award-winning photographer, Anna Tärnhuvud, covered the 20 year remembrance of Srebrenica as well as the effects of Nicaragua’s strict abortion laws.
Jacob Zocherman has returned to Sweden after having spent around one and a half years documenting the tumultuous situation in South Sudan- see
one of his stories here.
As an agency we’re pleased to announce that we have four photographers whose work has been nominated for the the Swedish Picture of the Year Award 2016. Both the ceremony and the awards will be in March. Until then, here are some of the most compelling Kontinent images of 2015.
In 2015 more than one million refugees fled to Europe. The Greek island of Lesbos saw hundreds of boats arriving to its shores with thousands of refugees struggling to get on with their journey north. On the 3 of November over 7 000 refugees arrived to Lesbos. Hundreds of them to rocky coastline by the north eastern lighthouse where no volunteers where stationed to help. A couple of Norwegian volunteers who had managed to confiscate a smuggler boat arrived to help children and women ashore. After lighting fires to dry up wet clothes hundreds of refugees started the five hour march to the transit camp in the middle of the island.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentBentiu, South Sudan, April 16, 2015: A group of children sing the national anthem of South Sudan before starting school in the internally displace peopleÕs camp at the UNMISS (United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan)-PoC site (Protection of civilian site) in Bentiu. Most of the schools throughout the country are closed due to the war. A lot of International NGOÕs mean that education is one of the most important factors to achieve a future without armed conflict. This photo is a snapshot taken while the students prepared for school.
Photo: Jacob Zocherman / KontinentLesbos, 3 November 2015. The refugee childrens faces are lit by the volunteers headlamps. In one day over a hundred boats arrived to the Greek island with more than 7 000 refugees hoping for a safer future in Europe.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentSweden introduces border controls to stem the flow of refugees. Police checks papers at Hyllie station in Malm, Sweden.
Photo: Julia Lindemalm / KontinentRezie with family, arrived in Sweden from Afghanistan.
- There are so many refugees here in Malm. I want to learn Swedish and start to work. I will take any job.
Photo: Ola Torkelsson / KontinentSwedish artist Lars Vilks lives with constant police protection.
Photo: Anders Hansson / Kontinent2015-08-26 Greece/Idomeni
Makedonian border police screaming and hitting with their batons when the situation turns into chaos when hundreds of refugees try to pass the border between Greece (Idomeni) and Macedonia (Gevgeljia) at the same time.
Photo: Johan Persson / KontinentAbdullah, 11 years, from Damaskus, Syria - It feels like i have sand in my hand, i want to blow it away. Photo: Jörgen Johansson / KontinentSousse, Tunisia, the day attack left thirty-eight people dead. An armed gunman attacked a hotel. It was the deadliest non-state attack in the history of modern Tunisia.
Photo: Jonte Wentzel / Kontinent15 November 2015. Terror in Paris. 15 000 people run in panic from Place de la Republique in Paris. In restaurants people take cover in terror under tables. In minutes the square is empty except for police officers taking cover with guns pointing in all directions. 15 minutes goes by and suddenly the police rise from their cover and call false alarm. A lightbulb is said to have exploded causing panic. Two days before the bloodiest terror attacks in a long time took place in Paris. Suicide bombers tried to get in to Stade de France and several bars and restaurants in Paris 10th and 11th arrondissements were attacked by gunmen and in the concert hall Le Bataclan a massacre took place. Before the carnage was over 129 people were dead and 352 injured.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentPalm Springs in southern California is a popular holiday resort with golf courses and several resorts. Since governor Jerry Browns water restrictions the city has been commanded to lower it's water usage by 36 percent.
Photo: Linda Forsell / Kontinent15/09/2015 - Hungary used a 175 long fence to close itsÕ border with Serbia. As a result, refugees can no longer seek asylum in the EU.
Photo: Magnus Sundberg / KontinentA man takes a morning swim at the beach in central Kos when a boat of refugees arrive.
Local and international NGO:s warned already in April for an upcoming refugee crisis in Greece during the summer months when waters are calm. Men, women and children travel from Turkey in small rubber boats, hoping to reach the Greek agaean islands which is just a few kilometers away. At present, an average of 600 refugee arrive every day in tourist destinations such as Kos and Lesbos. which completely lack the infra structure needed to take care of large numbers of refugees. The vast majority of the refugee comes from war torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.
Photo: Johan Persson / KontinentLekuongole, South Sudan, February 18, 2015: A man with bleeding ulcer has collapsed in a health-care centre that has just reopened after being destroyed. Since the civil war erupted at the end of 2013, South Sudan has plunged into humanitarian disaster. The fighting has ruthlessly affected the civil population as in direct targets of violence and many health-centres have been torched to the ground and left the survivors without almost no healthcare. This photo is a snapshot taken while visiting the health-care centre for three days and the wife of the man in the picture gave her permission the picture to be taken.
Photo: Jacob Zocherman / KontinentStudents in Rinkeby, Stockholm, walks in a Lucia procession in celebration for the Nobel Prize laureate of literature, this year Svetlana Aleksijevitj.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud / KontinentEvening prayer at the harbor in Lesbos.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentPassing trough eight countries, Dalaa, 5, together with her aunt and uncle, have made the journey to Sweden. They left Syria to start a new life, and has endured unbelievable hardships during the way.
Photo: Magnus Laupa / KontinentNekat Amiri from Afghanistan watch a film on his phone as his friends are asleep around him. During a period it was hard to find shelter for all the refugees arriving in Malm, so a church opened up to give temporary shelter.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentMohammed Haddi and his three daughters Kawthar , Fatima and Aman revisit the site of their burnt down local mosque in Eskilstuna, Sweden. After a series of arson attacks against mosques in Sweden, this too was thought to be an attack, later it turned out to be a stove that was left on that caused this particular fire.
Mohammed Haddi was in the mosque when the fire started, when interviewed he among others thought it was one of the attacks.
- I was late to the mosque and I was only in for five minutes until we heard something break, like a window. I ran home bare foot and my family was standing on our balcony, watching the smoke. I am more afraid now to go around town, especially at night. Sweden is the most free country in Europe, and yet things like this happen.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud / KontinentEvery year in February, the northern Italian town of Ivrea turns into a spectacular battlefield where thousands of people fight with oranges on the different squares of the town for 3 days.
Photo: Clement Morin / KontinentBeln became a mother at 17. Even if she doesn't regret it, she is struggling to keep up with school, and she miss the life as a normal teenager.
Photo: Anna Trnhuvud / KontinentThe war in Syria turned even more deadly during the winter 2014/15. Isis took control over the Syrian border town Kobane and wasn't thrown out until February 2015 in a combined effort between Kurdish forces and American bombings from the air. The kurdish fighter Reinas was injured when a rocket landed close to him during the fighting of Kobane, he is treated in one of the
few buildings still standing.
Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentThe war in Syria turned even more deadly during the winter 2014/15. Isis took control over the Syrian border town Kobane and wasn't thrown out until February 2015 in a combined effort between Kurdish forces and American bombings from the air. A virtually empty town was left with dead Isis fighters rotting in the streets. The entire population had been forced to flee. Most of them to the neighboring turkish town Suruj, many others joining the masses trying to get to Europe joining the mass flow of people getting on boats to the Greek islands and further north to Germany and Sweden. Photo: Anders Hansson / KontinentPanic breaks out as a false alarm of another shooting breaks out two nights after several coordinated terroristattacks killed over a hundred people in Paris, France.
Foto: Vilhelm Stokstad / TT / KontinentThe 7.8Mw earthquake hit the country on April 25 and its major aftershock on May 12 left huge parts of the countryside of Nepal in ruins. Just a couple of months later, well into the monsoon season in Nepal, the country is still awaiting the worst rains. It has been a race against time to get the tents replaced by sturdier shelters to withstand the heavy rains and possible landslides of the coming monsoon.
Foto: Vilhelm Stokstad / KontinentIn April 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Even today, the situation is difficult for large parts of the population in the area. Although it would take another 20 years until Kostia was born, he and the other children of the Chernobyl camp in Västmanland is still affected by the consequences of the disaster. The children attending the summer camp struggles with different types of difficulties at home. Many families are underprivileged and the children has to take a lot of responsibility at home early in life. – Here at the camp we let the children be children, says one of the summer camp counselors. Photo: Pi Frisk / KontinentBosnia and Herzegovina/Srebrenica 2015-07-10 There are not many women of Srebrenica who has not lost a son, brother, husband or father in the massacre of 1995. Even though the war ended 20 years ago the wounds are not healed. The mass funeral in Srebrenica is strictly monitored each year.
Photo: Anna Trnhuvud / Aftonbladet / KontinentGrabovov, Ukraine. Tatijana are originally form Moscow but now works as a shooter in one of the separatist tanks.
Photo: Jonte Wentzel / KontinentChristina Rehn loves hunting and fishing. She spends several months per year in Canada, but the rest of the year she lives in Smland, Sweden and sells meat from hunting in markets.
Photo: Roger Schederin / KontinentOne year after the Västmanland wildfire, Hans Johansson and Ulla Lundkvist are standing on the foundation of their new house. The old house was the only permanent residence that got destroyed in the fire. Until the new house is done, they have been living in a caravan. Photo: Pi Frisk / KontinentBill Schaffers new company is a huge success in California. He sprays dried out lawns with green paint as the water restrictions prevents the owners to water them.
Photo: Linda Forsell / Kontinent12/09/2015 - Noor, 3 years old, is playing while the Hungarian police are waiting for the buses, which havenÕt been seen since the night before.Noor has already travelled through five countries on his escape from the war in Syria. The previous night, Noor slept in his father Khaled's arms, in a field a few hundred meters into Hungary. NoorÕs mother, Fatimah, and his little sister could not make the dangerous journey to Europe and remained at home in Syria.
Photo: Magnus Sundberg / KontinentGina, a young woman from Craiova in Romania at her home at the EU-migrants camp in Malmö. Due to health risk and land dispute the Eu-mirgants were forced to leave their temporary homes. This eviction evoked a serious debate within the Swedish community regarding the violation of human rights. Photo: Magnus Laupa / KontinentBurundi/Bujumbura 2015-10-30
The body of an unidentified man was found in Nyabagere river in Mutakura neighbourhood in BurundiÕs capital Bujumbura. Nobody knows by whom or why he was killed. Dead bodies are found in the streets or in places like this almost daily in BurundiÕs capital Bujumbura now. Some remain unidentified and it is unclear who is killing them. Young men from the protest quarters have begun arming themselves and are now attacking police. Meanwhile, police and armed men loyal to the government are killing people suspected of being part of the underground resistance. The Burundian government is becoming increasingly isolated, closing itself to the outside world. Many fear that Burundi is moving towards a new civil war.
Photo: Johan Persson / KontinentBurundi/Bujumbura 2015-05-10
The protests against president Pierre NkurunzizaÕs bid for a third term have been going on since the 26th of April in the outskirts of BurundiÕs capital Bujumbura. Demonstrators have clashed with police almost daily Ð with stones against teargas and live bullets. Over 20 people have been killed and many more have been wounded since the start of the unrest. On the 13th of May a group loyal to one of the army generals made a coup attempt against the government. It failed, but the protests continue, and the situation has been deteriorating further.
Photo: Johan Persson / KontinentThe Promised Land Lima Alzghayer, nine years old, from Syria, at her and her family´s new home in Goland, an island in the southern Baltic Sea with a small population and a large rural community. During the fall of 2015 approximately 600-700 hundres refugees were placed on the island. Photo: Karl Melander / Kontinent
