The World Press Photo Foundation is pleased to announce the nominees for the 2018 Joop Swart Masterclass.

The event is run annually for the world’s most talented emerging visual journalists and is designed to support and enhance diversity in visual journalism and storytelling.

The final 12 participants will be announced during the World Press Photo Festival, taking place in Amsterdam 13-14 April.

An expanded nominating committee

The nominating committee has recently expanded to improve both regional representation and gender diversity, which we will continue to work on in the future. There are an additional 37 professionals from across the globe that potential candidates may contact to be nominated. Nominators come from 74 different countries. Of all active nominators in the 2018 nomination procedure, 42% are women while 58% are men.

A diverse group of nominees

For the 2018 Joop Swart Masterclass we received 219 nominations from 123 nominators, including the two runners-up from last year. The nominees come from 79 different countries from all six continents. Forty percent of all nominees are women and 60% are men. The largest number of nominations come from Iran (14), India (13), Russia (11), USA (11), Italy (9), Egypt (8), Bangladesh (8), Brazil (6), Germany (5), Norway (4), Ukraine (4), Ecuador (4), and Spain (4).

List of 2018 nominees:

• Jihad Abaza, Egypt
  
• Mustafah Abdulaziz, USA
  
• Fati Abubakar, Nigeria
  
• Lorenzo Acciai, Italy/USA
  
• Sima Ajlyakin, Syria
  
• Alexander Aksakov, Russia
  
• Mariam al Arab, Bahrain
  
• Mushfiqul Alam, Bangladesh
  
• Johanna Alarcon, Ecuador
  
• Sergi Alcazar, Spain
  
• Narek Aleksanyan, Armenia
  
• Rodrigo Alfaro, Argentina
  
• Sharafat Ali, India
  
• Tasneem Alsultan, Saudi Arabia
  
• Kazi Riasat Alve, Bangladesh
  
• Emanuele Amighetti, Italy
  
• Azad Amin Rashti, Iran
  
• Juan Pablo Ampudia, México
  
• Cicilie S Andersen, Norway
  
• Roger Anis, Egypt
  
• Alexander Anufriev, Russia
  
• Azin Anvar Haghighi, Iran
  
• Conor Ashleigh, Australia/Ireland
  
• Sayed Asif Mahmud, Bangladesh
  
• Layan Attari, USA
  
• Alexis Aubin, Canada
  
• Martina Avilés Endara, Ecuador
  
• Knar Babayan, Armenia
  
• Maxim Babenko, Russia
  
• Xyza Bacani, Philippines
  
• Mateusz Baj, Poland
  
• Sulejman, Bijedić Italy/ Bosnia & Herzegovina
  
• Kirsten Leah Bitzer, USA
  
• Verena Blok, Netherlands/Poland/USA
  
• Alfredo Bosco, Italy
  
• Soumya Sankar Bose, India
  
• Dario Bosio, Italy
  
• Myriam Boulos, Lebanon
  
• Isadora Brant, Brazil
  
• Quentin Bruno, Belgium
  
• Nocebo Bucibo, South Africa
  
• Emanuele Camerini, Italy
  
• Marina Caneve, Italy
  
• Koral Carballo, Mexico
  
• Marco Casino, Italy
  
• Sharon Castellanos, Peru
  
• Debashish Chakrabarty, Bangladesh
  
• Romain Champalaune, France
  
• Amrita Chandradas, Singapore
  
• Navesh Chitrakar, Nepal
  
• Turjoy Chowdhury, Bangladesh
  
• Sabiha Çimen, Turkey
  
• Tiago Coelho, Brazil
  
• Maria Contreras Coll, Spain
  
• Charlie Cordero, Colombia
  
• Fernando Criollo, Peru
  
• Mario De Fina, Argentina
  
• Lauren DeCicca, USA
  
• César Desfuli, Spain
  
• Oliver Doyle, USA
  
• Nariman El-Mofty, Egypt/Canada
  
• Mohammed Elshamy, Egypt
  
• Tatiana Fabiola Cedillo Crespo, Ecuador
  
• Fatmah Fahmy, Egypt
  
• Thana Faroq, Yemen
  
• Ismail Ferdous, Bangladesh
  
• Alves Ferreira Nunes Ricardo, Portugal
  
• Fabiola Ferrero, Venezuela
  
• Nicolo Filippo, Italy
  
• Alexey Furman, Ukraine
  
• Nazar Furyk, Ukraine
  
• Gayatri Ganju, India
  
• Jakob Ganslmeier, Germany
  
• Sophia Germer, USA
  
• Maria Gruzdeva, Russia
  
• Brett Gundlock, Canada
  
• Rajat Gupta, India
  
• Soham Gupta, India
  
• Eric Gyamfi, Ghana
  
• Billy H.C. Kwok, Hong Kong
  
• Maheder Haileselassie Tadese, Ethiopia
  
• Marie Hald, Denmark
  
• Sonja Hamad, Syria/Germany
  
• Toms Harjo, Latvia
  
• Ulrik Hasemann, Denmark
  
• Kiana Hayeri, Iran/Canada
  
• Samar Hazboun, Palestine
  
• Jann Hoefer, Germany
  
• Mona Hoobehfekr, Iran
  
• Mohamed Hossameldin Mahmoud Mohamed, Egypt
  
• Alexandra Rose Howland, UK/USA
  
• Katinka Hustad, Norway
  
• Anna Ivantsova, Russia
  
• Nneka Iwunna-Ezemezue, Nigeria
  
• Khashayar Javanmardi, Iran
  
• Ciril Jazbec, Slovenia
  
• Yanan Jia, China
  
• Hannes Jung, Germany
  
• Lionel Jusseret, Belgium
  
• Taro Karibe, Japan
  
• Anton Karliner, Russia
  
• Hawre Khalid, Iraq
  
• Saumya Khandelwal, India
  
• Chandan Khanna, India
  
• Seonggwang Kim, South Korea
  
• Francis Kokoroko, Ghana
  
• Adél Koleszár, Hungary
  
• Aleksey Kondratyev, Kyrgyzstan
  
• Seif Kousmate, France/Morocco
  
• Lukas Kreibig, Germany
  
• Ksenia Kuleshova, Russia
  
• Fei Lam Yik, Hong Kong
  
• Isabella Lanave, Brazil
  
• Klaudia Lech, Norway
  
• Christopher Lee, USA
  
• Fredrik Lerneryd, Sweden
  
• Mariane Lima, Brazil
  
• Sheng-Wen Lo, Taiwan
  
• Sebastian Lopez Brach, Argentina
  
• Nora Lorek, Sweden/Germany
  
• Adriana Loureiro Fernández, Venezuela
  
• Gabriel Luz Carpes, Brazil
  
• Mohamed Mahdy, Egypt
  
• Hadeer Mahmoud, Egypt
  
• Maryam Maijd, Iran
  
• Lea Mandana, France/Iran
  
• Alice Mann, South Africa
  
• Ignacio Marín, Spain
  
• Medhi Mariouch, Morocco
  
• Milutin Markovic, Serbia
  
• Edgar Martinez, Venezuela
  
• Desislava Şenay Martinova Öztürk, Bulgaria/Turkey
  
• Ramin Mazur, Moldova
  
• Mark McGuinness, Ireland
  
• Philip Montgomery, USA
  
• Ahmad Mousa, Iraq
  
• Ma. Patricia Nabong, Philippines
  
• Krishanu Nagar, India
  
• Virginie Nguyen Hoang, Belgium
  
• Armend Nimani, Kosovo
  
• Hanna Noori, Iran
  
• Adrian Øhrn Johansen, Norway
  
• Hiroshi Okamoto, Japan
  
• Cristobal Olivares, Chile
  
• Minzayar Oo, Myanmar
  
• Margo (Margarita) Ovcharenko, Russia
  
• Swastik Pal, India
  
• Meli Petersson Ellafi, Sweden
  
• Evgeniy Petrachkov, Russia
  
• Nam Phi Dang, Canada/Vietnam
  
• Roman Pilipey, Ukraine
  
• Ronald Alexander Pizzoferrato, Italy/Venezuela
  
• Charmaine Poh, Singapore
  
• András Polgár, Hungary
  
• Angela Ponce Romero, Peru
  
• Leonard Pongo, Belgium/Congo
  
• Mohammad Ponir Hossain, Bangladesh
  
• Alex Potter, USA
  
• Tommaso Protti, Italy
  
• Sathish Kumar Purushothaman, India
  
• Hala Rabeea, Iraq
  
• Ashfika Rahman, Bangladesh
  
• Taufiqur Rahman, Bangladesh
  
• Annick Ramp, Switzerland
  
• Kimiya Rashidi Nik, Iran
  
• Btihal Remli, Morocco/Germany
  
• Katia Repina, Russia
  
• Hannah Reyes Morales, Philippines
  
• Katya Rezvaya, Russia
  
• Michael Rhebergen, Netherlands
  
• Josué Rivas, México
  
• Isadora Romero, Ecuador
  
• Kaveh Rostamkhani, Iran
  
• Agoes Rudianto, Indonesia
  
• Roi Saade, Lebanon
  
• Mustafa Saeed Jirdeh, Somalia
  
• Fethi Sahraoui, Algeria
  
• Behnam Sahvi, Iran
  
• Muhammad Salah Abdul-Aziz, Sudan
  
• Hosam Salem, Palestine
  
• Sara Sallam, Egypt
  
• Soheila Sanamno, Iran
  
• José Sarmento de Matos, Portugal
  
• Özge Sebzeci, Turkey
  
• Ronny Sen, India
  
• Hashem Shakeri, Iran
  
• Seyed Madyar Shojaeifar, Iran
  
• Mitar Simikić, Serbia
  
• Michel Slomka , France
  
• Karolina Sobel, Poland
  
• Yashovardhan Sodhani, India
  
• Gaia Squarci, Italy
  
• Javed Sultan, India
  
• Mathias Svold Maagaard, Denmark
  
• Hilary Swift, USA
  
• Seyede Nazanin Tabatabaeeyazdi, Iran
  
• Yaroslava Tarasova, Russia
  
• Jack Taylor, UK
  
• Imane Tirich, Morocco
  
• Tafadzwa Ufumeli, Zimbabwe
  
• Danil Usamanov, Kyrgyzstan
  
• Ivan Valencia, Colombia
  
• Alicia Vera, Mexico/USA
  
• Elliot Verdier, France
  
• Anastasia Vlasova, Ukraine
  
• Oded Wagenstein, Israel
  
• Toby 'Biko' Wesa, Kenya
  
• John Wessels, South Africa
  
• James Whiting, Australia
  
• Elias Williams, USA
  
• Muyi Xiao, China
  
• Jasmine Yedigarian, Armenia/Iran/USA
  
• Cansu Yıldıran, Turkey
  
• Larissa Zaidan, Brazil
  
• Ezz Zanoun, Palestine
  
• Marcos Zegers, Chile
  
• Vladimir Zivojinovic, Serbia
  
• Matic Zorman, Slovenia
  
• Tamina Florentine Zuch, Germany
  

In the next stage of the selection process, an independent committee will choose the final 12 participants to be invited to Amsterdam for the masterclass later this year. The selected participants will be announced during the World Press Photo Festival taking place 13-14 April in Amsterdam.

Committed to education

The World Press Photo Foundation is committed to education as the future of visual journalism depends on the dedication of new talent. Since the first workshop in Budapest in 1990, we have run programs in Bangladesh, North Africa, the Philippines and Gaza, and masterclasses in Mexico City, Nairobi and Accra. These programs foster both the craft of visual storytelling, good journalistic practice and help create diversity in the profession.

The Joop Swart Masterclass has been organized by World Press Photo every year since 1994 and has established itself as one of the most prestigious events of its kind. Its goal is to bring together some of the most experienced individuals in photojournalism with young, promising photographers to share and pass on their knowledge and experience.