Yasuyoshi Chiba wins World Press Award, Amen

(C) Yasuyoshi Chiba

Every now and again something happens that makes you feel good about the world. This email to duckrabbit was one of those times:

From: chiba.yasuyoshi@gmail.com
Subject: from Chiba
Date: 13 February 2009 13:46:13 GMT
To: benjamin@duckrabbit.info

Hi Benjamin,

One of my photo got a prize in the world press photo.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=1429&type=byname&Itemid=224&bandwidth=high

When you mentioned about my photos and this contests, it just happened.
I think you have right eyes to see photographs.

I really appreciate what you encourage me always.

Yasuyoshi Chiba

Lets face it I know absolutely nothing about photography but I can spot a good bloke.  Yasuyoshi is far more than that, he is someone utterly focused on his art, but not in a way that he has to F*** up everything around him.  He is, as this email proves, incredibly humble.

Yasuyoshi’s photos did something far more important than fly around the worlds press. He gave them as a gift to me in Kenya to use in my work training journalists.¬† The effect was to remotivate journalists beaten down and confused by the terrible events that had gripped their country. That, far more than the World Press, is what makes Yasuyoshi special.

I told Yasuyoshi he would win a World Press. It wasn’t a hunch, just a hope.

If you’re out there doubting yourself, work hard and hope. That’s all you can do.

Related posts:

1. Yasuyoshi Chiba wins Prix Bayeux of war reporting
2. Congo burning … more Yasuyoshi Chiba photos
3. Yasuyoshi Chiba nails it (again)