Photographer Jodi Bieber's portrait of 18-year-old Afghan Bibi Aisha, taken for Time magazine, was named the World Press Photo of the Year for 2010. (Jodie Bieber/Institute for Artist Management/Goodman Gallery for Time magazine/Associated Press)

A South African photographer's portrait of an Afghan woman whose husband sliced off her nose and ears in a case of Taliban-administered justice won the World Press Photo award for 2010 Friday, one of photojournalism's most coveted prizes.

Jodi Bieber's posed picture, which contrasts the woman's arresting beauty against the results of the violence done to her after she fled an abusive marriage, was published on the cover of Time magazine Aug. 1.

Bieber, 44, a winner of eight previous World Press Photo awards since 1998, is a freelance photojournalist affiliated with the Institute for Artist Management/Goodman Gallery. She has published two books on her native South Africa.

Jury members said the photo, though shocking, was chosen because it addresses violence against women with a dignified image. The woman, 18-year-old Bibi Aisha, was rescued by the U.S. military and now lives in America.

'It's a terrific picture, a different picture, a frightening picture...It's so much about not just this particular woman, but the state of women in the world'

—Juror Vince Aletti

"This could become one of those pictures — and we have maybe just 10 in our lifetime — where if somebody says 'you know, that picture of a girl,' you know exactly which one they're talking about," said jury chairman David Burnett of Contact Press.

The picture also gains part of its resonance from its similarity with the iconic 1984 National Geographic photograph of a beautiful young Afghan woman with a piercing gaze. Time's publication of the picture provoked international debate over the ethics of publishing — or not publishing — such a disturbing image.

"It's a terrific picture, a different picture, a frightening picture," said Juror Vince Aletti, an American freelance critic.

"It's so much about not just this particular woman, but the state of women in the world."

In a video commentary on Time's website, Bieber said, "It was more about capturing something about her — and that was the difficult part." She said she did not want to portray Aisha as a victim. "I thought, no, this woman is beautiful."

Aisha posed for the Time cover photo because she wanted readers to see the potential consequences of a Taliban resurgence, the magazine said when it was published.

Trend toward freelancers grows

Although established photo agencies and press bureaus won a fair share of honours for 2010, a trend toward freelancers and unaffiliated photographers continued to grow.

"Any photographer anywhere with a laptop and a camera is competing with every other photographer in the world," Burnett said. He said that was extending the competition to all corners of the globe.

"A lot of the best work is done by photographers who went out and did it on their own. They didn't wait to be sent," he said. In addition, in a world where every mobile phone has a camera, he said it's inevitable that amateur photographers will be the only ones to record some events.

In acknowledgment of that fact, the jury gave special mention to a 12-picture series made by the miners trapped for 69 days 700 metres under ground in the San Jose mine in Chile before they were rescued on Oct. 13.

"The whole point of a photo is that somebody had to see it and be there," Burnett said. He also noted that one image that didn't win a prize, but came very close, was made with an iPhone camera.

Getty Images and Panos each won in five categories, while Reuters had three and The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse each had two.

One of the biggest winners in the news categories, Daniel Morel of Haiti, is involved in a legal dispute over the republication of his photos by mainstream news outlets after he put them on a website. Someone else spotted them, claimed ownership, and sold them to AFP.

Morel won first place in the Spot News Stories category for his series on the Jan. 12 earthquake and its immediate aftermath. He also took second place in the Spot News Singles category for an image of a woman trapped under rubble being rescued.

In all, 56 photographers of 23 nationalities won prizes. They competed among a record pool of 108,059 photos by 5,847 photographers participating from 125 countries.

Bieber, the overall winner, also won first place in the portraits category for the same photo. She will receive a cash prize of $10,000 in a ceremony later this year.