Behind the picture (Feb. 16/14)

John Stanmeyer photo
African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city at night, raising their phone in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighbouring Somalia -- a tenuous link to relatives abroad. Djibouti is a common stop-off point for migrants in transit from such countries as Somalia. Ethiopia and Eritrea, seeking a better life in Europe and the Middle East (Source: World Press Photo).

People are silhouetted against a blue night sky as they hold their cellphones upward, hoping to obtain a signal back home to friends and family. American photographer John Stanmeyer took the photo, which was chosen as a World Press Photo of the Year, while working for National Geographic.

According to Stanmeyer's biography on the World Press Photo website, he's produced more than 12 stories for the National Geographic and worked for Time Magazine until 2008. The photo was published as part of an extensive December 2013 feature by National Geographic entitled Walk the World, which covers journalist Paul Salopek's global trek. 

Stanmeyer's former employer Time Magazine commented on the photo recently. Here's what they had to say:

Rather than single out a photograph that might have had an impact on public opinion, on governments, on the course of events last year -- the often lonely and dangerous task of the photojournalist as social conscience -- a symbolic image was chosen representing the problems and necessity of communication over a long distance. And the medium represented in this prize-winning photograph -- the cellphone -- is not incidentally the primary tool of user-generated social media (for text, video and photography) that bypass traditional media outlets. In the photograph's depiction of the raising of four illuminated screens to the night sky one can sense not only the ascendance of the cellphone and all that it represents in society, but also the distress of the more traditional press unsure of its own future. 

What is photo gazetteer?

The story behind the photograph is just as important as the photograph itself. This is a blog that will look at the stories behind the photographs shaping our world, everything from the small and mundane, to the big and spectacular. Feel free to comment on photos and share your own.

This blog is managed by designer and journalism student John King