This year’s annual World Press Photo awards, considered one of the world’s most prestigious photojournalism competitions, saw a record number of 108,059 images submitted to the contest that fit both those categories. The international jury awarded prizes to 54 photographers in nine theme categories, including to three Australians - Daniel Berehulak, Adam Pretty and Steve Christo.

This is the second time he has received a World Press Photo award with Christo winning third place in the Sports Singles category for his images of competitors in the Cole Classic swimming away from Manly Beach.
“The night before they asked me if I wanted to go up in the helicopter or go in the water,” Christo explains. “I thought, everyone’s done in the water, I’d like to go up there to shoot. I think the race started at around 10 o’clock, so I arrived at 9.30am and we did a fly over of the area. The weather wasn’t great, but the air was still.

“I was up there for about half an hour, but I think I took that photo within the first two minutes, but I really had to concentrate; that one was taken just after they started.
“When you are taking photographs, you can anticipate the flow of some things and things sort of slow down a little.”

He adds, “We were flying up in the clouds and they would open up and then I would take a photo, and watching them I would know they are in a good shape … and that is mostly what I was looking at.”
A photographer with 24 years of experience under his belt, Christo began as news photographer before moving into sports photography.

“We did photography at school and I always liked doing it,” Christo says. “I did news for a little while … and when the (Sydney Morning) Herald got a sports department, it went from there …
“I started doing sport because I thought there were enough photos of death … I thought I’d take photos of things that made people smile.”

the World Press Photo 2011 exhibition will be displayed at the Brisbane Powerhouse from June 4 to June 26.