Swedish photographer Jonas Gratzer has been named Photographer of the Year by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand. He also won the Spot News Single Image prize for his photo of anti-government protesters engaged in a gun battle with loyalist supporters in Bangkok. He captured this photo while caught in the middle of the action, lying on the ground with bullets flying over his head.
He told IBTimesUK: "Obviously I was feeling unsafe – it was a very tense situation where bullets were flying over my head and a sniper in a high-rise building was aiming towards us. I lay myself flat on the ground and crawled close to the subject I was photographing. I was able to take four or five pictures before they stopped me from doing so."
1 February 2014: Anti-government protesters fire handguns towards government loyalists in BangkokJonas Gratzer
Originally from Stockholm, Gratzer has been living in Bangkok with his wife and son since 2009. He has travelled throughout south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent, focusing on rights issues such as child labour, human trafficking and women's rights, as well as environmental concerns. He has recently become a Getty Images contributor.
He said: "With my pictures I try to make people aware of what the daily struggle faced by millions of people across the continent. There are so many sides of Asia that are not pleasant. My major concern for the region is that corporations are eating up Asia and spreading like cancer. Many leaders in powerful positions turn a blind eye to what's happening in this part of the world. There is a sort of philosophy of 'money first and what happens next is not our concern.'"
He has allowed IBTimes UK to publish this gallery of his powerful photos. See his website or follow him on Facebook for more.
3 December 2007: HIV-positive six-year-old Jorani poses for a photos. She lives at a care centre run by Buddhist monks in Cambodia after her parents both died of AidsJonas Gratzer10 February 2009: Rina is 17 years old. She was rescued after being enslaved for seven years in a brothel in MumbaiJonas Gratzer10 December 2011: A member of the Gulabi Gang prepares herself for a fight. The Gulabi (Pink in Hindi) Gang is a group of women who take justice in their own hands out of desperation at the government's incompetency in dealing with abusive and domestic violenceJonas Gratzer13 February 2012: A victim of an acid attack poses for a portrait. In the recent years, acid attacks have become increasingly common in CambodiaJonas Gratzer3 February 2011: A transsexual prostitute works inside a brothel in Mumbai's infamous Kamathipura red light district. These sex workers service 20 to 50 customers a day and earn on average 1-2 US dollars per customer, with half going to the brothel owner.Jonas Gratzer25 October 2014: A child labourer works in the coal mines of Jharia, Jharkhand state, IndiaJonas Gratzer20 November 2013: Manda Devi Mishra and Sujit Mishra from the village of Bhramarpura in Nepal hold a photo of their son/father, a migrant labourer who died working in dangerous conditions in QatarJonas Gratzer9 February 2010: Labourers pull a rope on the muddy beach of Chittagong in Bangladesh where decommissioned ships are disassembledJonas Gratzer12 May 2015: A South American rescue team search for a boy who was believed to be trapped under the rubble of a house that collapsed following a second major earthquake in Kathmandu, NepalJonas Gratzer/Getty ImagesA woman looks out of the bus as it passes through the Thankot Checkpoint in Kathmandu, on 14 May 2015, after the devastating earthquakeJonas Gratzer/Getty ImagesA Buddhist nationalist joins a demonstration in Yangon on 27 May 2015, to protest against the international pressure on Myanmar to accept the repatriation of Rohingya boat refugeesJonas Gratzer/Getty ImagesA Rohingya mother holds her two sons, both suffering from malnutrition, at a camp in Sittwe, Myanmar, on 25 May 2015Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images14 November 2012: Rohingya kids play on the roof of a tent inside of the camp for Internally Displaced People in Sittwe, MyanmarJonas Gratzer12 November 2014: A very young child labourer carries leather offcuts on his head in Hazaribagh, Bangladesh. The name of the town means "a thousand gardens" – ironic considering is filled with nothing but pollution and toxic wasteJonas Gratzer
16 April 2013: Zura, a Muslim woman aged 21, covers her dead son with a blanket in the Da Piang refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar. He died after 10 days of high fever as the military refused to let his family seek medical attentionJonas Gratzer
