Polish photographer Tomasz Lazar took this picture of the Occupy Wall Street protests Courtesy of World Press Photo

Polish photographers Tomasz Lazar and Tomasz Gudzowaty were two of the 57 who were awarded in nine categories in the 55th edition of the World Press Photo competition, the world’s leading international contest for photojournalists.

The two Poles were in competition with over 5,000 photographers from 124 countries. Tomasz Lazar was awarded second place in the category “People in the News,” while Tomasz Gudzowaty won third place in the “Sport” category.

Mr Lazar, a newcomer to the competition, received the accolade for a photograph that depicts an arrest during the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City’s Harlem district. The 27-year-old was in New York for a photo workshop when he started documenting the protests. “I was certainly lucky. I was in the right place at the right time,” he told daily Rzeczpospolita.

Tomasz Gudzowaty chronicled Lucha Libre wrestling in Mexico Courtesy of World Press Photo

Mr Gudzowaty, who has won several awards in the competition since 1999, received his citation for a series of photos commissioned by National Geographic Polska about Lucha Libre, a version of freestyle wrestling popular in Mexico. Mr Gudzowaty’s pictures have been published in established news and industry publications, as well as in several photo books, and exhibited worldwide. He is associated with Yours Gallery in Warsaw.

The winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2011 is Spanish freelance photographer Samuel Aranda, for a photo the panel of 19 judges felt was representative of the Arab Spring movement. The photo, taken on October 15, 2011 for The New York Times in Sana’a, Yemen, depicts a veiled woman holding a wounded man in her arms.

“It is a photo that speaks for the entire region. It stands for Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, for all that happened in the Arab Spring. But it shows a private, intimate side of what went on. And it shows the role that women played, not only as care-givers, but as active people in the movement,” Koyo Kouoh, a judge on the panel, said in a statement.

Prize-winning photographs from the World Press Photo competition will be exhibited in Poland twice this year, between April 27 and May 19 in Poznań, and between November 11 and December 7 in Kraków.

Izabela Depczyk, Alice Trudelle