The best Swiss press photography

From politics to football and art, these are the winners of this year’s Swiss Press Photo Award.

The jury of the Fondation Reinhardt von Graffenried recently awarded Stefan Bohrer the best photo in the “news” category for his snapshot of a fire in Basel’s Rhine river harbour (above).

Nicolas Brodard won the Swiss history category by accompanying 2018 Swiss President Alain Berset over the course of several months, without actually taking a picture of him at all.

“The minister is not visible on any photo, but each picture shows his view on things,” says the young photographer.

Christian Merz won the category “everyday life” by photographing four St Nicholas figures going to visit people in prison.

Anthoney Anex took the best portrait, of artist Pipilotti Rist posed on the edge of a swimming pool with her tongue out. Her 2018 installation at a Bern indoor swimming pool highlighted the deaths of the world’s coral reefs.

Footballer Granit Xhaka’s tongue also featured: at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Swiss player with Albanian roots created a controversy by showing the “double eagle” symbol in a match against Serbia. With that photo, Laurent Gillieron won the category for “best sport photo”.

Michel Zumstein won the “foreign reporting” category with his pictures from Niger, where he visited a rehabilitation centre for members of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram.

One of the winners of these six categories will be chosen as Photographer of the Year at a ceremony on April 24 in Bern.