World Press Photo 2026

On 9 April 2026, the winning photographs of the 69th edition of the prestigious photojournalism competition were announced, while on 23 April the Photo of the Year, together with the finalists, was revealed. The Amsterdam exhibition opened on 24 April, marking the beginning of the customary international tour. Since 1955, the competition has annually recognized the work of the world’s leading professional photographers, helping to shape the history of contemporary visual journalism.

The Photo of the Year 2026 is Separated by ICE by Carol Guzy (ZUMA Press, iWitness for the Miami Herald). The image, taken inside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York, documents the moment when a man is detained by immigration officers after a hearing, separating him from his family. The photograph was recognized for its ability to make the impact of immigration policies visible in a direct and deeply human way: not as an isolated case, but as a systemic condition affecting people who approach institutions in good faith.

Alongside the winner, two finalists were selected. Humanitarian Emergency in Gaza by Saber Nuraldin (EPA Images) shows Palestinian civilians climbing onto an aid truck in an attempt to obtain food. The photograph was chosen for its compositional strength and its ability to convey the urgency of famine, transforming a scene of chaos into visual evidence of the humanitarian crisis and its global implications.

The second finalist is The Achi Women’s Trials by Victor J. Blue (The New York Times Magazine), a collective portrait of Indigenous Maya Achi women who survived violence during the Guatemalan civil war. The image, taken outside a courthouse, was recognized for its measured approach and its ability to restore dignity and authority to its subjects, documenting a historic moment of justice after decades of impunity.

The winning images in the 2026 competition represent a selection from more than 57,000 photographs submitted by photographers from 141 countries, offering a complex and layered view of the present. As every year, the exhibition is conceived not merely as a display, but as a critical device capable of questioning the role of images in shaping collective memory and in helping us understand contemporary tensions.