The annual World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the last year. To offer a more global and better geographic balance of perspectives, the World Press Photo Foundation launched a regional strategy last year, changing the set-up of the annual contest and the judging.
2023 Contest winners
Representing major news events and important moments overlooked by the mainstream media in 2022, the 2023 World Press Photo Contest winning works call attention to some of the most pressing issues facing the world today – from the devastating documentation of the war in Ukraine and historic protests in Iran, to the realities in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and the many faces of the climate crisis in countries ranging from Morocco to Australia to Peru to Kazakhstan.
The 24 regional winners and six honorable mentions - covering stories from the front lines of conflict, culture, identity, migration, memories of lost past and glimpses of near and distant futures - were selected by an independent jury out of more than 60,000 entries by 3,752 photographers from 127 countries.
Judging of the 2023 World Press Photo Contest took place from 14 January to 24 February 2023 and involved regional juries and a global jury. The regional juries first made a selection of entries per category in their regions, after which the global jury decided on the regional winners, and from those, the global winners. Learn more about the judging process.
“The photographs that we have chosen to represent 2022 are indicative of this moment in time, and will serve as historical documents of what the year was like for future generations to look back on and hopefully learn from,” said 2023 Contest global jury chair Brent Lewis.
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