World Press Photo (WPP) is a Dutch non-profit organisation, based in Amsterdam, that runs the annual World Press Photo Contest — described by media scholar Marco Solaroli as "the largest and arguably most prestigious press photo competition in the world," language independently echoed by a 2007 United Nations note calling it "the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest." Founded in 1955 as an international extension of the Dutch Zilveren Camera award, the organisation also runs an annual travelling exhibition seen at dozens of venues worldwide each year, publishes an annual yearbook in six languages, and operates education and development programmes for photojournalists, including the Joop Swart Masterclass.
Since 2022 the contest has organised entries by format across six world regions rather than by theme, a restructuring the organisation says was intended to correct historical underrepresentation of photographers from South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia and Oceania. The organisation's history also includes a documented series of image-manipulation scandals, prize revocations, and censorship disputes, and it is presently at the centre of a contested reattribution of The Terror of War, one of the best-known photographs it has ever honoured.
History
Origins (1955–1960) The World Press Photo Contest was first held in 1955, when the Dutch photojournalists' professional association, the Nederlandse Vereniging van Fotojournalisten, marked its twenty-fifth anniversary by opening its national Zilveren Camera award to international entrants. That year, 42 photographers from 11 countries submitted just over 300 photographs for judging, and a public exhibition of the winning work followed in December 1955. The contest's success led to the formal constitution of the World Press Photo Foundation as a non-profit organisation in Amsterdam in 1960.
Growth and internationalisation Only News and Sport (single images) and Feature Stories and Photojournalism (picture series) were judged at first; a separate section for colour photography was introduced in 1965. Through the 1970s the Features category split into News Features and General Features, culminating in 1975 in the establishment of ten named categories and a one-off "Woman in View" prize marking the United Nations' International Women's Year. A separate Children's Jury prize ran from 1984 to 2003. By 1999, the contest drew 3,733 photographers from 116 countries submitting 36,836 photographs; specialised category juries were introduced from 2010. Entries later peaked at roughly 98,000 submissions in the 2015 contest before settling into the tens of thousands as the format changed; the 2026 contest drew 57,376 photographs from 3,747 photographers in 141 countries.
Restructuring (2021–present) In 2021, entrants from South America, Southeast Asia and Oceania, and Africa each made up less than ten percent of the contest — 7%, 5% and 3% respectively. The following year's contest was restructured around six world regions to improve geographic representation. Executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury said of the change: "It is exhilarating to see the way in which the new regional contest set up has produced the changes that we were hoping for," and global jury chair Rena Effendi called it "an exciting new chapter." World Press Photo marked its 70th anniversary in 2025 with a retrospective exhibition and event in Amsterdam.
Organization
Governance World Press Photo is governed by an executive director and a Supervisory Board. Michiel Munneke served as managing director for over a decade before stepping down in November 2014; Maarten Koets served as acting managing director until Lars Boering was appointed in January 2015. Boering departed in June 2020 — a departure trade press described as sudden, and which followed several controversies including a high rate of contest disqualifications in 2016 and a potential defamation lawsuit — saying the coronavirus pandemic had upended the foundation's programmes and brought his exit forward. Arnoud van Dommele served as interim managing director from mid-2020 until Joumana El Zein Khoury, previously director of the Prince Claus Fund, was named executive director in November 2020 and took up the role on 1 February 2021.
The Supervisory Board has been chaired successively by Pieter Broertjes, a former editor-in-chief of de Volkskrant; Guido van Nispen, until he stepped down on 1 February 2021; and Marlou Banning, as interim chair, who remained on the board as treasurer. Janne Nijman was appointed chair effective 1 February 2022, with Jamila Aanzi joining the board as a member. Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands is patron of the foundation.
Funding World Press Photo is funded through a combination of corporate partnerships, a lottery partnership, ticket revenue and grants. The Dutch Nationale Postcode Loterij has been a partner since 2004; in 2019 it renewed its worldwide partnership for five years with a total commitment of €2,500,000, and separately committed €1,190,000 to a multi-year programme linked to a planned World Press Photo exhibition space at the Westergasfabriek site in Amsterdam. Canon was a worldwide sponsor for 27 years, until the partnership ended on 31 December 2018; Fujifilm and PwC subsequently became strategic partners, with Fujifilm supplying camera equipment to the Photo of the Year winner. The foundation publishes annual financial reports; its 2021 report recorded 34,231 paying exhibition visitors that year, down from 82,707 in 2019 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and disclosed a three-year lease on premises at Haarlemmerweg 4-6, Amsterdam.
Contest
Format and categories From the 2022 contest, World Press Photo replaced its long-standing thematic categories — which had included Spot News, General News, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Portraits, Sports, Nature and Environment — with a format-based structure judged across six world regions. Entries were initially divided into four categories: Singles – a single standalone photograph. Stories – a photo series of multiple images developing a single narrative. Long-Term Projects – a sustained body of work developed over more than one year. Open Format – introduced in 2022, admitting mixed storytelling media built around still photography; discontinued after the 2024 contest.
The six regions were originally Africa; Asia; Europe; North and Central America; South America; and Southeast Asia and Oceania. By the 2025 contest, the Open Format category had been discontinued and three categories remained — Singles, Stories, and Long-Term Projects — with three winners per region in Singles and Stories rather than one each. Under the structure used for the 2026 contest, the global jury selects 42 winners across three categories in six regions, from which the World Press Photo of the Year and two finalists are chosen.
Judging process Judging takes place over approximately six weeks in January and February. In each region, a jury of five professionals from or working in that region makes an initial selection from the entries in each category. A global jury, composed of the six regional jury chairs plus a global jury chair, then selects the winners from those regional shortlists. The global jury is assisted by a secretary responsible for procedural matters, who takes no part in deliberating the merits of entries and holds no vote.
Entry rules and verification Entrants whose work reaches the final stages of the contest must supply the files as recorded by the camera, which are examined confidentially by independent experts before prizes are confirmed. The organization's rules prohibit altering an image by adding, rearranging, reversing, distorting or removing people or objects within the frame, and require that all entered photographs be made with a camera; use of generative artificial-intelligence tools results in automatic disqualification.
World Press Photo of the Year
Each year's contest selects a single World Press Photo of the Year from among the category winners. Past winners have included Spencer Platt of Getty Images in 2006, for an image of young Lebanese driving through a Beirut neighbourhood devastated by Israeli bombing; Tim Hetherington in 2007; and Anthony Suau in 2008, his second win after 1987. More recent winners have included Mads Nissen (2014 and 2021), Ronaldo Schemidt (2018), John Moore (2019), Amber Bracken (2022) for an image commemorating Indigenous children who died at Kamloops Indian Residential School, Evgeniy Maloletka (2023) for the aftermath of the Mariupol maternity hospital airstrike, Mohammed Salem (2024), and Samar Abu Elouf (2025), whose portrait of nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour, wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, was named winner by a jury chaired by Lucy Conticello, director of photography at M, Le magazine du Monde. The 2026 Photo of the Year, announced on 23 April 2026 under a global jury chaired by Kira Pollack, was Separated by ICE by Carol Guzy for ZUMA Press and the Miami Herald, showing a father detained by U.S. immigration agents in New York City while his daughters clung to him.
Exhibitions
The prizewinning photographs from each contest are assembled into a travelling exhibition. In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic it was shown at around 100 venues in 45 countries to a combined annual audience of roughly four million visitors; the foundation has more recently described the exhibition as reaching millions of people at more than 80 locations each year. Since 2019, the flagship exhibition has been held at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, under a five-year partnership announced in 2021; the ceremony and exhibition were previously associated with the Oude Kerk. In November 2017, the foundation held its largest US exhibition to that date, at Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Underground art space. In October 2023, World Press Photo partnered with Magnum Photos on a joint "Square Print Sale," titled Written by Light, pairing 31 contest winners with more than 75 Magnum photographers to sell over 100 signed prints; the organizations said the sale was conceived to spotlight photography made with a camera at a moment when the contest was also debating the admissibility of AI-generated images.
Education and development programs
Joop Swart Masterclass Since 1994, World Press Photo has organised the Joop Swart Masterclass, named for Joop Swart, who chaired the contest jury from 1966 to 1974 and served on the foundation's board from 1970 until his death in 1994. Held in Amsterdam, the programme brings together twelve early-career photojournalists selected to work with mentors on projects addressing "profound social, political, and cultural" subjects. The 2018 edition was the masterclass's 25th; the 2020 edition, themed "Reset," was held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim Hetherington was a participant in the 2002 class.
6x6 Global Talent Program Launched in 2018, the 6x6 Global Talent Program recognises six visual storytellers in each of six world regions per cycle. By 2020 the programme had completed a first cycle of 36 photographers and begun a second; several 6x6 participants have gone on to take part in the Joop Swart Masterclass or to win World Press Photo Contest prizes.
Other programs