A photo of a group of affluent young Lebanese driving through a crumbling South Beirut neighbourhood last summer has been named the World Press Photo of the Year.

This image from U.S. photographer Spencer Platt, depicting affluent Lebanese checking out a destroyed south Beirut neighbourhood on Aug. 15, has won the 50th annual World Press Photo Contest.
(Spencer Platt/Getty)

U.S. photographer Spencer Platt on Friday was named the winner of the prestigious photojournalism prize, which carries a cash value of €10,000 (about $15,000) and is now in its 50th year. The image also won in the category of Daily Life Singles.

Platt took the picture last August while working for photo agency Getty Images. It shows the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, when thousands of Lebanese began returning to their homes.

"It's a picture you can keep looking at," jury chair Michele McNally, assistant managing editor of the New York Times, said of Platt's photo.

"It has the complexity and contradiction of real life amidst chaos. This photograph makes you look beyond the obvious," she said in a statement.

This year, organizers received more than 78,000 entries from professional photographers in 124 different countries. The jury ultimately announced 58 winners in 10 theme categories, which range from general news to daily life to sports action.

Platt and this year's other winners will receive their awards at a ceremony in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on April 22. The ceremony will be preceded by three days of lectures, discussions and  photography exhibits of this year's World Press winners, a selection of Platt's work and a themed show highlighting climate change in Africa by African photojournalists.

The exhibits will also be open to the public in Amsterdam on April 24 and the annual display featuring the winners will travel to more than 85 locations worldwide.

Last year's winner was Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly.

With files from the Associated Press.