The long-standing press photographer Harald Henden was honored in the Opera House.
The case is updated.
On Tuesday evening, photographer Harald Henden was awarded Fritt Ord’s prize for 2024. The prize was awarded in the Opera House.
Henden received the award for his coverage of war, conflicts and natural disasters over 30 years.
In his speech, Henden talked about how the images have changed. In the past, photographers who could take pictures, develop them and send them home were invaluable.
– Every day over 3 billion photos are uploaded to social media, including from conflicts and disasters. But in an age of fake news, propaganda, manipulation and artificial intelligence, the question often becomes what we can trust, said Harald Henden when he received the Fritt Ords Prize.
He added that precisely because of that it has become no less important to have photographers present.
– On the contrary – it is more important than ever before. Because also the individual photographer’s most important capital is credibility. When I put my name under a photograph, readers should be able to trust that the content is correct, no further verification is needed. My name shall be associated with truth. It is a credibility that takes many years to build up, but which can be destroyed by a single mistake.
Harald Henden has, among other things, been close to the long-term conflict between Israel and Palestine for several decades.
Colleagues pay tribute to Harald Henden: – He has sacrificed his whole life for VG
In 2001 he was shot in the head in Ramallah in the West Bank while covering the Israeli elections, and he had several trips to Gaza and the West Bank behind him before documenting the Gaza wars between Israel and Palestine in 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014 – the two the last times inside from Gaza.
He has been a permanent employee of VG since 1991 and associated with the foreign affairs department since 1999. This winter he received a serious cancer diagnosis, which he has been open about, which has meant that he has had to end his work as a photographer.
Recently, he also received the first honorary award during the awarding of the picture of the year by the Press Photographers’ Club.
He was also nominated for the Great Journalist Award.
Fritt Ord’s reasoning:
The Stiftelsen Fritt Ords Pris for 2024 is awarded to war and press photographer Harald Henden for courageous and uncompromising documentation of wars, conflicts and natural disasters for over three decades.
Harald Henden (63) has with perseverance and great risk to his own life traveled to front lines and conflict areas all over the world to photograph important news events – always with the civilian population in mind. The ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza actualize the importance of photographic documentation to reveal the effects of war on the ground and violations of international law.
Harald Henden: – I have always tried to avoid being the story
For war photographers and photojournalists, it is often about being out as early as possible to get the best access to uncensored documentation of what happens when conflicts develop. Harald Henden has fearlessly entered unpredictable and dangerous areas to become a first-hand witness to what is happening.
– In a troubled time where authorities and other actors make use of disinformation and propaganda, with this award Fritt Ord will draw attention to precisely the credibility of war and press photographers who work on the ground and contribute reliable information, says Fritt Ord’s chairman Grete Brochmann:
– It is critical for access to information that Israel has closed access to the international press in Gaza during the ongoing war. Palestinian photojournalists and civilians documenting inside Gaza today are doing an absolutely crucial job with their lives at stake.
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