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AFP photographer’s typhoon image one of Time Magazine’s top ten of 2013
Time Magazine has chosen an image taken by AFP photographer Philippe Lopez of the Philippines typhoon disaster as one of its top ten pictures of 2013.
The image, taken on November 18, shows women and children in a religious procession against a backdrop of devastation caused by typhoon Haiyan.
‘My colleague Jason Gutierrez and I were heading back from fishing communities devastated by super typhoon Haiyan on the Philippine island of Leyte when we stumbled on this small religious procession in the village of Tolosa,’ Lopez recalled.
‘Clouds gathered in front of the setting sun while along the road residents lit fires to burn the debris left by the typhoon. Momentarily, the devastated landscape took on a strange beauty, and it was just then that this group of women and children appeared on the road.’
Frenchman Lopez, 39, has worked for AFP in Asia for 14 years.
He began his career with the agency as a freelancer in Cambodia in 1999 and became staff the following year. In 2002 he was appointed as a photo editor in New Delhi as part of the agency's development of its South Asia photo desk. He then joined the regional headquarters in Hong Kong as a picture editor in 2005 and in 2009 became a staff photographer in Shanghai.
He returned to the Hong Kong bureau in 2011.
The agency has a network of more than 400 photographers, who regularly win top international photo prizes.
It transmits more than 3,000 images a day. The agency’s photo platform, ImageForum, boasts some 23 million images from AFP and its 40 partners. The international photo service was created in 1985 and has increased its production seven-fold since the year 2000.
About AFP
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,260 journalists spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.