07/31/2026
This year we announced the winners of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest, connecting the world to the stories that matter by presenting the outstanding work of photojournalists and documentary photographers from across the globe.
The 2026 Contest winners are the best of the 57,376 photographs entered by 3,747 photographers from 141 countries. Amongst this year’s winners are recognizable topics, and then some stories that were overlooked. Broad perspectives, and intimate insider views. Conflict and crisis, but also resistance, resilience, and hidden traditions.
The awarded projects include global conflicts, offering a powerful visual record of life across the world from the United States and Ukraine to Nepal, Pakistan, and Palestine. The selection reflects the far-reaching impact of the climate crisis, from Los Angeles to the Philippines, Mexico, and Norway, while also highlighting civic action and the fight for rights through images of protests in the United States and women’s movements in Guatemala and Kenya.
Intimate and often poignant, the works also reveal the fragility of human life, from illness and isolation to grief and survival, alongside stories of younger generations, from ballet dancers in South Africa to women horseriders in Morocco, and families affected by immigration enforcement in the United States. Environmental portraits bring viewers into striking proximity with nature, from an elephant cull in Zimbabwe, to a polar bear atop a s***m whale, and a close-up of a panda in a Chinese national park. Together, these projects form an urgent portrait of our world today. World Press Photo
