Children – the Future of Mankind

UNICEF Photo of the Year honours its fifth anniversary

This book is an impressive stock-taking of being a child in our troubled world, that documents two different things: the suffering of children caused by poverty, illness or war on the one hand and their unbent joy of life on the other hand. Internationally renowned photographers, prize-winners of the UNICEF Photo of the Year-Award, have made their photos available for this outstanding book.

Furthermore there are five literary essays throughout the book on the situation of children in terms of expulsion, war, food and work, illness and malnutrition. The essays are by the Nobel Literature Laureate Günter Grass, the famous Eduardo Galeano, the great Susan Sontag, the photographer and Unicef-Ambassador Sebastiao Salgado and last but not least Mario Vargas Llosa. Potography expert Prof. Klaus Honnef recognized the artistic importance of the photographs. In his text, Reinhard Schlagintweit, honorary chairman of the German UNICEF Committee, remembers that 150 member states of the United Nations have committed themselves to providing full educational opportunities to all children of the world by 2015.

» In every crisis situation – whether war, deep poverty or natural disaster – children are the greatest victims. The weakest physically, they are invariably the first to succumb to disease or starvation. And yet, unless they are serioulsy ill, pure energy surges from them even in the worst of circumstances.
It is something experienced by every photographer who has worked among refugees or urban migrants. When children see a camera, they jump with excitement, laughing waving, pushing each other in the hope of being photographed. Sometimes their joy gets in the way of recording what is happening to them. How can a smiling child represent deep misfortune? – A paradox. Sebastião Salgado, photographer and Unicef-ambassador

The purchase of this book includes a donation for the Unicef Project „Friendly Schools in Africa“ in Angola. This education campaign was announced by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and UNICEF.