Senegalese Wrestlers

The work of Denis Rouvre, who won second place in sports features in the World Press Photo Awards for his work on Senegalese wrestlers.

All images by Denis Rouvre.

Two weeks ago the results of the World Press Awards were announced. The prize winners included a number of striking images about and by Africans.

Most of the attention has focused on the Malian, Malick Sidibe, who won first prize in the arts and entertainment category for a spread that appeared in The New York Times Magazine last year.

Other winners include Francesco Giusti, who won second prize in the same category for his photos of Congolese sapeurs; Farah Abdi Warsameh from Somalia, second prize in the general news; and Stefano De Luigi from Italy for his shots droughts in Kenya, second place in contemporary issues-singles.

For me, however, the most striking pictures are those by Denis Rouvre of France, who won second place in sports features for his work on Senegalese wrestlers.

Here’s two of the images from the series.

You can view the full series on his website.

Further Reading

How to unmake the world

In this wide-ranging conversation, para-disciplinary artist Nolan Oswald Dennis reflects on space, time, Blackness, and the limits of Western knowledge—offering a strategy for imagining grounded in African and anti-colonial traditions.

A migrant’s tale

On his latest EP, Kwame Brenya turns a failed migration into musical testimony—offering a biting critique of ECOWAS, broken borders, and the everyday collapse of pan-African ideals.

What Portugal forgets

In the film ‘Tales of Oblivion,’ Dulce Fernandes excavates the buried history of slavery in Portugal, challenging a national mythology built on sea voyages, silence, and selective memory.