LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA, SIRTE : Libya’s new regime forces battle fighters loyal to fugitive strongman Moamer Kadhafi in Sirte on October 10, 2011, in a drive to control Kadhafi’s hometown after a month-long siege. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS
Aris Messinis and Yasuyoshi Chiba were recently awarded prizes for their work by the Days Japan photojournalism Grand Prix, which recognizes the work of photo reporters around the world.
Messinis, a Greek photographer working in AFP’s Athens bureau, won a Special Prize by Jury for a series of images taken during fighting in the Libyan city of Syrte, in the last battle before the fall of Moamer Kadhafi. He went on two assignments to cover the Libyan conflict. His work included a photo of a rebel fighter playing the guitar during a gun battle in Sirte. Messinis has already won a FotoWeek DC prize for his coverage of events in his native Greece.
Japanese photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba, based in AFP’s Sao Paulo bureau, was awarded a Special Prize by Jury for his reportage on the tsunami in Japan in March 2011. Then attached to the Nairobi bureau, he was called in on a special assignment to reinforce the Tokyo bureau’s coverage of the disaster. His images also took the first prize in the “People in the News ” category at the World Press Photo 2012.

Cherry blossom covers a tree in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture on April 18, 2011. Japanese lawmakers grilled the president of the company at the centre of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, demanding he take responsibility for the disaster. AFP PHOTO / YASUYOSHI CHIBA