In 2012, Portuguese photographer Daniel Rodrigues was completely broke. Regrettably, he had to sell all of his photo gear - a camera, three lenses, a tripod and a flash - to pay for the mounting pile of bills in his home. When things looked completely grim for Rodrigues, he was informed by the World Press Photo organization that his photograph won first place in "Daily Life" for 2012. Along with the ~$2,000 cash prize, he was provided with new photography gear from Canon and Banco Espírito Santo (a Portuguese bank). As if that weren't enough, anonymous photographers around the world offered him money and their own gear to help him out.
The genesis of Rodrigues' return from near financial ruin was his charity work in Africa with the Portuguese nonprofit Missão Dulombi this past year. After graduating from a photography school in Portugal and then being laid off from a news agency due to cutbacks, he decided to travel to Guinea-Bissau to volunteer his time and expand his portfolio. While spending time with a local community to rebuild their resources, he snapped the above photo of children playing a soccer game on their day off from school. Last month, he was informed that his photograph won the award, and given the backing he now enjoys, he plans to return to the country to offer a print of the photograph to the community:
The prize is also theirs. So often, the people that are the protagonists of photographs that win awards don’t have the slightest notion about that.