Mads Nissen has won the First Prize in the International Photographer of the Year category at this year’s POY International photo contest – the world’s oldest photojournalism competition hosted by RJI at Missouri School of Journalism.
Below are a selection of images from the winning portfolio.
The parents of Khalil Ahmad (15) decided to sell their son’s left kidney because they are too poor to feed the family. They were paid 320,000 Afghani (3,500 USD) for the kidney, an amount that it would take Khalil’s father Gul years to earn even if there was work for him. Afghanistan, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
Oksana Ruschyshyn, holding her youngest child Roman, stands with her other children beside the body of her husband Roman Ruschyshyn (44) who was killed on 7 March 2022 during a battle with invading Russian forces in the Luhansk region. Ukraine, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
A wounded soldier is transported to a hospital in Dnipro after initial treatment at a military hospital in an undisclosed location close to the frontline has stabilised his injuries. Ukraine, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
Bloodstains on a hospital bed from a soldier with severe leg wounds in a military hospital in a secret location. Ukraine, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
Mohammad Omin (35) and Nabi, have been in the Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital for 70 days. They claim that their malnourished bodies are a result of the hospital not feeding them sufficiently. Some estimates claim that one million people in the country are addicted to opiates and more recently methamphetamine. Afghanistan, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
Drug users, who have been caught in the streets by the the Taliban, undergo exercise at the Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital. Afghanistan, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
A member of a specialist anti-narcotics police force, the ‘Comando Jungla’, jumps out from a helicopter as they conduct a mission destroying remote mountainside cocaine laboratories. Colombia, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of 100% pure, uncut cocaine which is sold for around USD 1250 but has a street value of around USD 127 per gram in London. Colombia, 2022. © Mads Nissen/Panos Pictures