Laura Pannack jets off to Amsterdam to collect her World Press Photo prize.

"It was incredible fun and so overwhelming to be amongst such inspirational and talented photographers from all over the world. The awards consisted of 3 days in Amsterdam. Over the course of the three days each photographer gave a presentation for 10 minutes about their work allowing me to see and hear about so much great photography, and meet a number of my true idols working within the industry.

A fantastic dinner was hosted by Canon on the Saturday evening and a big awards ceremony on the Sunday night followed by a party. They invited all of the photographers on stage in front of an 800 strong audience in a beautiful auditorium . There was then a chat show type of discussion in which they chose me as one of 5 to get microphoned up and answer questions on stage!

I had such a fabulous time! World Press Photo were so accommodating and organised. I met some really lovely people and feel truly honored to have received the award."

The contest jury comprised 19 picture editors, photographers and representatives of press agencies from different parts of the world, with widely diverse backgrounds. The jury gave prizes in ten themed categories to 62 photographers of 22 nationalities from: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mali, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Somalia, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

During the two-week judging, the jury viewed a record number of photographs with 101,960 images submitted by 5,847 photographers. The photographers represent 128 different nationalities.

Check out Laura's interview, by following the link below...

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/wpph_awards_2010.do