"There I was, one of tens of thousands of people, mostly men, trudging barefoot uphill to the Sabarimala temple," writes New Delhi-based correspondent Bhuvan Bagga.

"Monkeys screeched as they swung along the branches above. I silently cursed the bathroom slippers that I had worn for the occasion and prayed that my cover as a tourist would hold."

Gaza-based Mahmud Hams received top honors in the photo category at the 25th Bayeux-Calvados War Correspondents Prize for his image of a wheelchair-bound demonstrator during the “Great March of Return” protests earlier this year.

A 38-year-old resident of the Gaza Strip, Hams has covered numerous conflicts, from demonstrations to incursions by the Israeli army. Here he describes the particulars of these protests.