Now that picture above has been chosen as the 2007 UNICEF Image of the Year. It was taken by Stephanie Sinclair who is an American photographer. According to the photographer, this image was taken in Afghanistan.The image shows two people. A man over 40 years in age and a child who is a mere 11. They are not father and daughter. The truth is, they are about to be married. Yes, married. The man is Mohammed and the little girl is Ghulam.

In a report, Eva Louise Kohler, the UNICEF Patroness, shares that the international competition to find the best image for 2007 was a way so as to find the photograph that would be able to show the entire world reality about a problem that is occurring around the globe. And Sinclair’s photograph shows little girls being married to older men. These females are not given a chance to choose what kind of life they would want to live. UNICEF also disclosed that there are not only hundreds of young females being married but actually of millions of little girls tying the knot before they are even adults.

Tons of images were sent in to be part of the whole competition. In fact, there were 142 photographers who joined and they came from 31 different countries around the globe. The mentioned numbers may have already scared you but the judges had to go through 1,230 images in their aim to select the best one.

Congratulations to Stephanie Sinclair and may we see more photographs like this - images that bring about awareness.

Posted in: Imaging