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Main | Photographer of the Year - Freelance / Agency | Second Place
First Place
Yuri Kozyrev
TIME Magazine

Second Place
David Guttenfelder
The Associated Press

Third Place
John Moore
Getty Images

Award of Excellence
Ed Ou
Getty Images

Second Place
David Guttenfelder
The Associated Press

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"JAPAN'S NUCLEAR REFUGEES"

On March 11 Japan's 9.0 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami and caused the meltdown of the Dai-ichi nuclear reactors. Around 80,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in the vicinity of the crippled plant leaving behind radioactive contaminated ghost towns inside the so-called "exclusion zone". The fate of these people and their communities remains unknown.

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Footsteps are imprinted in the drying mud on the streets on Odaka, Japan, inside the exclusion zone encircling the Dai-ichi nuclear power station. After the disaster on March 11, tens of thousands were ordered to leave their homes in the vicinity of the damaged nuclear plant.