Finalist: Rafiq Maqbool and Eranga Jayawardena of Associated Press
Nominated Work
Sri Lankans shout anti-government slogans while blocking the entrance to president's office during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, April 11, 2022. Thousands of Sri Lankans protested calling on the country's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign amid worst economic crisis in history. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
An injured protestor grieves in pain as police fire tear gas to disperse protesting members of the Inter University Students Federation during an anti government protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, May 19, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
An injured student is carried by colleagues as police fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesting members of the Inter University Students Federation during an anti government protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, May 19, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
Protesters storm Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
Protesters swim as onlookers wait at a swimming pool in the president's official residence a day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, July 10, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
People struggle as they enter the president's official residence a day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, July 11, India, Monday, July 11, 2022. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
A protester holds a portrait of former Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa upside down after storming Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
Protesters react after storming the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
Protesters react after storming Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
An injured protester reacts in pain as he is shifted to hospital in an ambulance during clashes with police near parliament in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. Sri Lanka’s president fled the country without stepping down, plunging a country already reeling from economic chaos into more political turmoil. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
People use gym equipment as they throng President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence on the second day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, July 11, 2022. P(hoto by Eranga Jayawardena.)
A protester sits on a chair surrounded by others after storming the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. Rajapaksa fled on a military jet after angry protesters seized his home and office, and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president while he is overseas. Wickremesinghe quickly declared a nationwide state of emergency to counter swelling protests over the country's economic and political collapse. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool.)
A Sri Lankan protester waves the national flag from the rooftop of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena.)
Biography
Rafiq Maqbool is a staff photographer for Associated Press and has been based in Mumbai, India since 2009. For AP he has covered some of South Asia’s most troubled hotspots including his homeland of Kashmir. He has extensively documented militancy and violence at its height in the late 1990s including the Kargil war between India and Pakistan, as well as the devastating earthquake of 2005 in the region.
Besides Kashmir, Rafiq has also covered assignments such as the conflict in Afghanistan for over a decade and was based full-time in Kabul between 2007- 2009. Rafiq has also covered the Bangladesh floods of 2004 and the tsunami affected regions in Sri Lanka in 2005. He was there in 2009 to cover the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and most recently in 2022, to document yet again, another political upheaval in the country.
Being based in Mumbai Rafiq has been documenting every aspect of life in the bustling metropolis from street photography to business, Bollywood, politics and countless cricket matches.
Eranga Jayawardena was born April 11, 1978, and brought up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and has been a witness and a recorder though news photography of key natural, socio-political and entertainment events for more than 20 years of his life. Eranga in 1996 started taking up assignments while still at school for major local newspapers in Colombo and they mostly comprised of politically motivated ethnicity based violent events.
In 2002 Eranga joined Associated Press and has been responsible for the photographic coverage of Sri Lanka and neighboring Maldives. He has covered the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war and human rights issues, Commonwealth Games 2010 held in New Delhi, London Olympics in 2012, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Public referendum in the Maldives to transform the state into a multi-party democracy after 30 years of one-part rule are some of his significant assignments that got a global reach.
Eranga is a diplomate in photography earned from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and has master’s qualifications in Economic Development, Conflict and Peace Studies from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.