by “If I caught this shot, felt like a 3D chess,” says photographer Mike Wells.
In 1981 Wells won the World Press photo of the year for a picture recording in Uganda, which represented the hand of a malnourished boy in the palm of a Catholic priest. “When I worked in the 1970s and 80s, unless they could afford an engine drive for their camera, they often have only one chance of critical recording,” says Wells. “You could never say whether they had really hit the moment until they came back from Africa or at least from the darkroom. This picture was not well illuminated or well composed, only at the moment when an Italian missionary priest showed me the hand of a hungry boy who wanted to save them by emptying the mission mission business.”
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Wells adds that, although he is now “older, slower” and does not often take photos, the familiar electrical load, since the elements of an image have to do. “You still don’t get a second attempt at a shot like this: the sun is set or the horses went away or both,” he says. “The difference is that you will receive your answer immediately – it is wonderful to not have to wait for days or weeks to find out whether the moment was as special or important as your instinct insisted on it.”
