Haitian photojournalist Dieu-Nalio Chéry was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal. The Robert Capa Gold Medal, awarded annually, is given by Overseas Press Club for the “best photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise.” Luckson Saint-Vil (Loop Haiti) reports:

The Robert Capa Gold Medal was awarded to Haitian photojournalist Dieu-Nalio Chéry, who has now won his fourth prize for 2019.

Dieu-Nalio Chéry continues to accumulate international prizes. After being ranked second in the “Breaking news / story of the year” category of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Dieu-Nalio Chéry emerged as winner of the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal Awards, awarded since 1955.

“I can’t believe it!” was the photojournalist’s first reaction on his Facebook page, after Associated Press, the agency for which Dieu-Nalio Chéry works, relayed the information on Thursday, March 2. For Chéry, winning the 81st annual Robert Capa Gold Medal Awards, awarded by the “Overseas Press Club,” is a major accomplishment after many years of sacrifice and daily risk-taking.

The photo prodigy won the prestigious Robert Capa Award thanks to images whose capture, according to the jury, required “exceptional courage.” Jury members placed particular emphasis on the photos taken during the violent demonstrations held in Haiti denouncing the fuel shortage and inflation among others issues. Among those images that earned him this distinction, are notably “his striking images which show barricades engulfed in flames, cars overturned in the streets of Port-au-Prince, and a group of demonstrators dragging the lifeless body of another demonstrator towards the police,” as the jury explained.

In an announcement published on Thursday, the organizers drew attention to the photograph taken on September 23, 2019 by Dieu-Nalio Chéry at the Senate courtyard. This image, which has circulated around the world, shows a senator, weapon in hand, in front of a group of demonstrators who stormed legislative palace. During this scuffle, the photojournalist himself had his face injured by a bullet.

In the same vein, the judges said, “His images were raw, precise and captivating, leaving viewers with a strong emotional feeling of what it was like to be on the ground. Chéry’s courageous work highlights the unique dangers that some local journalists face and have overcome to cover stories important to their communities and to the world.”

[. . .] With the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, Dieu-Nalio Chéry becomes the Haitian journalist to have received the most distinctions for his work during 2019. The latter brings the number of prizes won by the talented image hunter to four (4). [. . .]

Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For full article (in French), see https://www.loophaiti.com/content/dieu-nalio-chery-remporte-le-prix-robert-capa-gold-de-lopc

For more on the OPC, see https://opcofamerica.org/