Hocine Zaourar (born 18 December 1952), also known by the mononym Hocine, is an Algerian photojournalist. His photograph of a woman grieving after the

Bentalha massacre At the village of Bentalha ( ar, بن طلحة), south of Algiers, on the night of 22–23 September 1997, more than 200 villagers (according to Amnesty International) were killed by armed guerrillas. The number of deaths reported ranged fro ...

in Algeria, dubbed the "Madonna of Bentalha", won both the

World Press Photo of the Year The World Press Photo of the Year award is part of the World Press Photo Awards, organized by the Netherlands, Dutch foundation World Press Photo. Considered one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in photojournalism, The World Press Pho ...

and the

Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents The Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents (French: Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie des correspondants de guerre), previously the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents, is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Ba ...

in 1998.

Life and work

Hocine took up photography in 1970. He joined

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

as a

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

in 1989 and worked for

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C ...

from January 1993. Initially he worked in various countries, in particular Somalia, Rwanda and Zaire, but later worked entirely in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. Hocine's photograph titled "Woman Grieves after Massacre in Bentalha" was made on 23 September 1997 outside Zmirli Hospital, 15 km from

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

. Dead and wounded people had been taken to the hospital after the

by the

Armed Islamic Group of Algeria The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from french: Groupe Islamique Armé; ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, al-Jamāʿa l-ʾIslāmiyya l-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian gove ...

the previous night, during the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War ( ar, rtl=yes, الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ الجَزَائِرِيَّةُ, al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhlīyah al-Jazāʾirīyah) was a civil war in Algeria fought between the Algerian government and various Is ...

. The photograph was published on the front pages of many newspapers, and was later dubbed the "" or "Bentalha Madonna". It caused controversy in Algeria and "has been credited with focusing attention on political violence" in the country.

Awards

*1998: Winner,

1997,

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

, Amsterdam for "Woman Grieves after Massacre in Bentalh" *1998: First Prize, People in the News – Singles category, World Press Photo 1997, Amsterdam for "Woman Grieves after Massacre in Bentalh" *1998: The Public Prize,

, Bayeux, France for "Femmes algériennes"

Life and work

Awards

References

Further reading