2021 Photo Contest
The annual World Press Photo Contest rewards the best visual journalism of the past year in eight categories: Contemporary Issues, Environment, General News, Long-Term Projects, Nature, Portraits, Sports and Spot News.
The 2021 World Press Photo Contest winners are 45 photographers from 28 countries: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Iran, Ireland, Mexico, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Contemporary issues
The Contemporary Issues category celebrates single pictures or stories documenting cultural, political or social issues affecting individuals or societies.
The winners in the Contemporary Issues category, singles, are:
1st Prize
Yemen: Hunger, Another War Wound
Pablo Tosco, Argentina
2nd Prize
Doctor Peyo and Mister Hassen
Jérémy Lempin, France
3rd Prize
Resting Soldier
Vaghinak Ghazaryan, Armenia
“This photograph of Fatima and her son fishing will stay with me as a powerful image of agency and resilience,” says NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, 2021 Photo Contest jury chair and co-founder and director of photo.circle, about Pablo Tosco’s winning picture.
The winners in the Contemporary Issues category, stories, are:
1st Prize
Sakhawood
Alexey Vasilyev, Russia
2nd Prize
Islamic State’s Yazidi Survivors
Maya Alleruzzo, United States, Associated Press
3rd Prize
The Aftermath of the North East Delhi Riots
Zishaan A Latif, India
Kevin WY Lee, jury member, photographer and creative director, explains why the 1st prize winning story stood out for him: “‘Sakhawood’ was one of my favorites in the category. When you tell a story, whether in pictures or words, you’re essentially creating a world to engage and sustain our interest and belief in that world, consistently and with rhythm, throughout the entire sequence. The photographer does this very well—I find myself experiencing the atmosphere, smells, sounds, and conversations the subjects might be having.”
Environment
The Environment category rewards single pictures or stories documenting human impact, positive or negative, on the environment.
The winners in the Environment, singles category are:
1st Prize
California Sea Lion Plays with Mask
Ralph Pace, United States
2nd Prize
Temple and Half-Mountain
Hkun Lat, Myanmar
3rd Prize
Climate Crisis Solutions: Collecting Drinking Water in Kalabogi
K M Asad, Bangladesh
About the 1st prize picture, Kathy Moran, jury member and deputy director of Photography at
National Geographic, says:
“I love the double-take nature of this photograph. At first glance, it seems to be a curious sea lion investigating trash. Then it hits; this discarded mask has turned an unsightly but mostly benign encounter into a COVID moment. Even underwater we can’t escape the pandemic.”
The winners in the Environment, stories category are:
1st Prize
Pantanal Ablaze
Lalo de Almeida, Brazil, Panos Pictures, for Folha de São Paulo
2nd Prize
One Way to Fight Climate Change: Make Your Own Glaciers
Ciril Jazbec, Slovenia, for National Geographic
3rd Prize
Inside the Spanish Pork Industry: The Pig Factory of Europe
Aitor Garmendia, Spain
Pilar Olivares, jury member and photographer at Reuters, explains why the 1st prize winning story stood out: “This is the story about fires that impacted me the most. Each photo shows us a sad situation of devastation without losing the aesthetic sense. This series of photos is perfectly edited; I don't feel like I need to see more, and I don't feel like I'm seeing too much either.”
General News
The General News category recognizes single pictures or stories reporting on news topics and their aftermaths.
The winners in the General News, singles category are:
1st Prize
The First Embrace
Mads Nissen, Denmark, Politiken/Panos Pictures
2nd Prize
The Human Cost of COVID-19
Joshua Irwandi, Indonesia
3rd Prize
Ceremony to Mourn Qasem Soleimani in Tehran
Newsha Tavakolian, Iran, Magnum Photos
The First Embrace is also nominated for the World Press Photo of the Year award. “I see this photo as one of the rare positive photos about the COVID-19 era. It is a symbolic scene, conveying the effort frontline workers made, and the hardship they experienced. The photographer had to be there in the right place at the right moment,” said Ahmed Najm, jury member and managing director of Metrography Agency, about the winning image.
The winners in the General News, stories category are:
1st Prize
Paradise Lost
Valery Melnikov, Russia, Sputnik
2nd Prize
Cross-Border Love
Roland Schmid, Switzerland
3rd Prize
COVID-19 Pandemic in France
Laurence Geai, France
Paradise Lost is also nominated for the World Press Photo Story of the Year award, and one of the images included in this story is nominated for the World Press Photo of the Year. “The story captures the most recent conflicts that have taken place in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is one of the most human representations of war that I have seen in a while. It really gives you a sense of what daily life, and what daily loss looks like, in quiet ways—in ways that are away from the eyes of the world,” explains Gurung Kakshapati.
Long-Term Projects
The Long-Term Projects category celebrates a project on a single theme that has been shot over at least three different years.
The winners in the Long-Term Projects category are:
1st Prize
Habibi
Antonio Faccilongo, Italy, Getty Reportage
2nd Prize
Reborn
Karolina Jonderko, Poland
3rd Prize
Trapped in Greece
Angelos Tzortzinis, Greece, partially funded by the Magnum Foundation
Habibi is also nominated for the World Press Photo of the Year award. “The photojournalistic perspective of the photographer, along with the uniqueness of the story, have created a masterpiece. This is a story of human struggle in the 21st century: a story about those unheard voices that can reach the world if we as a jury act as a medium. It shows another side of the long contemporary conflict between Israel and Palestine,” says Najm.
Nature
This category rewards single pictures or stories showing flora, fauna and landscapes in their natural state.
The winners in the Nature, singles category are:
1st Prize
Rescue of Giraffes from Flooding Island
Ami Vitale, United States, for CNN
2nd Prize
Path of the Panther
Carlton Ward Jr., United States
3rd Prize
New Life
Jaime Culebras, Spain
"As with all of nature, the giraffe is full of majesty, but also vulnerability, as illustrated beautifully in this photograph,” said Lee about the 1st prize winning image.
The winners in the Nature, stories category are:
1st Prize
Pandemic Pigeons—A Love Story
Jasper Doest, the Netherlands
2nd Prize
Taal Volcano Eruption
Ezra Acayan, the Philippines, for Getty Images
3rd Prize
Locust Invasion in East Africa
Luis Tato, Spain
“What does a wildlife photographer do when stuck at home thanks to COVID-19? In this case they documented nature outside–and occasionally inside–their home. This story is a charming reminder that wildlife is all around us. We just have to open our eyes and our doors and reconsider the familiar,” said Moran about Pandemic Pigeons—A Love Story.
Portraits
The Portraits category rewards single pictures or stories of individuals or groups either in observed or posed portraits.
The winners in the Portraits, singles category are:
1st Prize
The Transition: Ignat
Oleg Ponomarev, Russia
2nd Prize
COVID-19 First Responder
Iván Macías, Mexico
3rd Prize
In Flight
Tatiana Nikitina, Russia
The Transition: Ignat is one of the World Press Photo of the Year nominees. “The first impressions I had when I saw this photograph were of dignity and love. Ignat, the transgender man in the picture, passed through a living hell throughout his school years, being the victim of insults and humiliation. His life has been a struggle for a basic right: the right to exist. Despite everything, Ignat preserved dignity and love. But at the same time he is not sure what to expect from people, and there is a look in the eyes that says: ‘Can I trust you? Will you hurt me?’” explains Andrei Polikanov, jury member and visual director at Takie Dela.
The winners in the Portraits, stories category are:
1st Prize
The ‘Ameriguns’
Gabriele Galimberti, Italy, for National Geographic
2nd Prize
Nowhere Near
Alisa Martynova, Russia
3rd Prize
Niewybuch
Natalia Kepesz, Poland
Sports
The Sports category recognizes single pictures, stories or portfolios that capture individual or team sports.
The winners in the Sports, singles category are:
1st Prize
Log Pile Bouldering
Adam Pretty, Australia, Getty Images
2nd Prize
Home Training
Stephen McCarthy, Ireland, Sportsfile
3rd Prize
Tour of Poland Cycling Crash
Tomasz Markowski, Poland
Moran says about the 1st prize winning picture: "A great sports action image defining of the COVID-19 year and of man’s spirit to survive, compete and excel beyond odds and limits."
The winners in the Sports, stories category are:
1st Prize
Those Who Stay Will Be Champions
Chris Donovan, Canada
2nd Prize
Faces of Bridge
Henrik Hansson, Sweden
3rd Prize
Thoughts of Flight
Fereshteh Eslahi, Iran, Podium Photos
Those Who Stay Will Be Champions is also nominated for the World Press Photo Story of the Year. “This story is beautifully shot in black and white frames and wonderfully edited. What I also like about it is that it gives another nuanced look into Black lives in America, beyond the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement,” explains Lee.
Spot News
The Spot News category rewards single pictures or stories witnessing news moments or immediate events.
The winners in the Spot News, singles category are:
1st Prize
Emancipation Memorial Debate
Evelyn Hockstein, United States, for The Washington Post
2nd Prize
Waiting for Release at a Temporary Detention Center in Belarus
Nadia Buzhan, Belarus
3rd Prize
Forest Fire
Nuno André Ferreira, Portugal, Agência Lusa
Emancipation Memorial Debate is also nominated for the World Press Photo of the Year award. “You can feel her pain, her understanding of her emotions. On the right side of her the guy, the arguing and we have the statue in the background. It’s very rare to capture everything to tell in one picture,” says Mulugeta Ayene, jury member and photographer, about the 1st prize winning image.
The winners in the Spot News, stories category are:
1st Prize
Port Explosion in Beirut
Lorenzo Tugnoli, Italy, Contrasto
2nd Prize
Presidential Vacancy
Ernesto Benavides, Peru, Agence France-Presse
3rd Prize
Minneapolis Unrest: The George Floyd Aftermath
John Minchillo, United States, Associated Press
One of the images of Port Explosion in Beirut is also nominated for the World Press Photo Story of the Year. Gurung Kakshapati explains why the image made an impact on the jury: “I think this image of the Beirut Port explosion really captures a strong man but his deep fragility in this moment of crisis, in a beautiful way. But also really encapsulating the pain of the situation.”
2021 Digital Storytelling Contest
The World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest rewards the best forms of visual journalism enabled by digital technologies in three categories: Interactive, Short, and Long.
The 2021 Digital Storytelling Contest winners are nine productions from seven countries: Australia, Chile, China, Lithuania, Spain, United States, and the Philippines. Amongst the winners are stories about the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, productions documenting the social justice protests around the globe and the effects of climate change, and accounts of women’s and indigenous people’s rights.
Interactive
The interactive category recognizes interactive visual stories or projects in a form other than video, which creates an immersive and/or innovative experience for the user through design.
The independent jury awarded three interactive productions, highlighting their outstanding contribution to a specific issue. All three productions are nominated for the World Press Photo Interactive of the Year.
The winners in the Interactive category are:
Outstanding Instructive Interactive
Birth in the 21st Century
Barret Cooperativa/Lab RTVE/À Punt Mèdia
Outstanding Archival Investigation
Reconstructing Seven Days of Protests in Minneapolis After George Floyd’s Death
Holly Bailey/The Washington Post and Matt Daniels, Amelia Wattenberger/The Pudding
Outstanding Immersive Storytelling
Ukraine: Grey Zone
Benas Gerdziunas/Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)
“We were looking for a production that represented an important topic of last year,” says Muyi Xiao, reporter and video producer in The New York Times Visual Investigations team and 2021 Digital Storytelling Contest jury chair.
Long
The Long category rewards single linear narratives, or series of linear narratives, on a single topic, produced as a video for the web, and lasting no longer than 30 minutes in total. The independent jury selected three long productions, all of them nominated for the World Press Photo Online Video of the Year.
The winners in the Long category of the 2021 Digital Storytelling Contest are:
1st Prize
Calling Back From Wuhan
Yang Shenlai/Tang Xiaolan
2nd Prize
To Calm the Pig Inside (Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos)
Old Fool Films
3rd Prize
Blood Rider
Jon Kasbe/The New Yorker
About the 1st prize winner Calling Back from Wuhan, Xiao said: “This video touches our hearts deeply. It shows the most raw moments of those who are going through trauma. And people in Wuhan — the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — share very severe and long-lasting trauma. It needs to be seen.”
Short
The Short category rewards a single linear narrative, produced as a video for the web, lasting no longer than 10 minutes. The independent jury selected three short productions, all of them nominated for the World Press Photo Online Video of the Year.
The winners in the Short category are:
1st Prize
A Racist Attack Was Caught on Camera. Nearly 45 Years Later, It Still Stings
The New York Times
2nd Prize
The Eternity of Tomorrow
Cristóbal Olivares/Magnum Foundation
3rd Prize
Good Morning, My Wife in Heaven (天堂里的邓顺芝，早上好)
Yingfei Liang/Shumin Wei/Caixin
Xiao explained why the 1st prize winner was chosen: “The usage of old footage here is really compelling. When we watch how these people still feel so strongly about the racist attack they survived 45 years ago, we understand how traumatic racist attacks are. It also shows the team’s commitment to doing the work of finding the people in the original video.”
