Attached Link: Winners Gallery

Warning: Some of the images in the winners gallery show extreme voilence and can be disturbing.

some great images - tho i dont think the winner warranted it to be honest - yes the contrast of subjects but that "spot photo" first place of the guy after the gas explosion was better imo as were a few other ones of the top 3 categories...  thanks for the link :)

I know you left a warning for us and now after seeing all those makes me want to cry :-(
I couldnt even think about what photo is better. I was blown away by all the pain and suffering :-(

I am sorry to hear that Miranda - I did leave the warning because many of the images are disturbing.

It is easy to be brought down by the pain and suffering shown, but it is only one side of events and must be viewed in perspective with the wonderful things that happen in this world too.  It is a pity there are not more good news and inspiring photographs in this years selection.

I found the picture story of the tourists helping the migrants on Tenerife quite inspiring - from the expressions on their faces you can see their compassion and caring attitude.  They havn't turned their backs and left it to the medical authorities who are obviously in attendance, they have stopped to help.

Thanks for the link Richard.

Its ok Onslow I know you did warn us ;-)

I just can never understand how one person can hurt another one that badly because they don't agree on something. It just don't make a bit of sense to me. what drives a person to the point they would even want to draw a single drop of blood from another?

I can not even respect people that are set out to get even on someone for something they did. to me that means you make an asshole look like a butt hole by trying to get even.

its just so sad people hurting other people  for one reason or another and to me there is never a good reason never a good reason at all to want to bring any kind of pain to someone else. well all manage to bring pain to each other by mistakes alone isnt that enough for people to have to deal with?

i guess im the kind of person that tends to think different then most. for example we have all been cut off in traffic by some clown going 100 miles an hour passing everyone just missing someone and im sure we have all flipped that clown of saying what a jerk.
and we get mad at what we dont understand. for all we know that driver was driving like that because his son was laying down in the back seat dieing and he was racing to get him to a hospital. but because we dont understand because we didnt see the son we flip him off in hate as he drives by. I prefer to write it off as something I dont understand then to feed my anger and flip him off.

there is only 3 things in this world that brings on anger
1 you dont understand
2 your scared
3 your hurt
if people would learn to deal with one of the 3 problems its not as hard to fix as the results from anger are.
just my 2 cents :-)
Miranda

Such powerful images, a glimse into the painful reality of so many.

I would have not have chosen the winning image. As far as hurt goes what is currently  bugging me is the amount of predjudice which is all around. Not even talking about the common ones which are recognised eg racial. I am talking about the one where people single you out because you appear different. When will an appreciation of diversity spread across all walks of life. Too many times diiferent equals fear in the viewers mind.