World Press Photo exhibition opens in Mexico City

The World Press Photo awards exhibition opened in Mexico City's beautiful Franz Meyer museum last night in collaboration with Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights.
The event was attended by hundreds, and features 200 photographs representing the best in press photography of last year. Images in the show range from photographs of conflict zones to wildlife.
A 76 year old Clint Eastwood gazes out of one of the black and white images in the exhibition. The spot news winner shows a man in Lagos, Nigeria walking through a gas factory blow apart by an explosion and was taken by Akintunde Akinleye, the first Nigerian photographer to win a World Press Photo award.
Daniel Aguilar, a Mexican journalist who works for Reuters, won third prize in the single category for general news with his image of a man tied to a lamppost in Oaxaca who was caught by anti-Government activists and accused of burglary.
The winning photo by Spencer Platt took pride of place at the start of the exhibition, and depicts a group of young Lebanese people in a red convertible inspecting the bomb-damaged neighbourhood of Beirut in August 2006.
The World Press Photo exhibition is traveling the world, and by the end of its sojourn will have been in 80 cities and 40 countries. It will stay in Mexico City until October 28th. The show is part of the city’s month of photography, which also includes an exhibition by Magnum photograher Rene Burri.