World Press presents the World Press Photo of the Year and two finalists.
“Together these three images — a family forcibly separated in a courthouse, survivors of sexual violence granted justice, a population forced to struggle for food — represent the breadth of what photojournalists bore witness to in 2025.” – Kira Pollack, 2026 Contest global jury chair
World Press Photo of the Year
Separated by ICE
Carol Guzy, ZUMA Press, iWitness, for Miami Herald
This photograph, taken inside one of the few US federal buildings where photographers were granted access, captures a harrowing moment: a family separated by the state. Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant, was detained by ICE agents following an immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City, New York, United States, on 26 August 2025. His family says he has no criminal record, and served as the household’s sole provider.
What Carol Guzy has documented is not an isolated instance, but a policy indiscriminately applied to people who arrive for hearings in good faith. Luis’ wife Cocha and their three children – ages seven, 13, and 15 – were left inconsolable, facing immediate financial hardship and profound emotional trauma. In a democracy, the camera’s presence in that hallway is an essential witness to a policy that has turned courthouses into sites of shattered lives.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photocontest/2026/photo-of-the-year
World Press Photo of the Year Finalist
Aid Emergency in Gaza
Saber Nuraldin, EPA Images
Palestinians climb onto an aid truck as it enters the Gaza Strip via the Zikim Crossing in an attempt to get flour, during what the Israeli military called a “tactical suspension” in operations to allow humanitarian aid through. 27 July 2025.
In 2025, famine took hold amid what an independent United Nations Human Rights Commission inquiry has concluded is a genocide in Gaza, which Israel disputes. Israeli authorities imposed a complete aid blockade in March, a tactic described by humanitarian organizations as the weaponization of starvation. The UN reports that between late May and early October, at least 2,435 Palestinians seeking food were killed at or near aid distribution sites. Despite a ceasefire agreement in October, more than 75% of the population still face hunger and malnutrition. The photographer was born in Gaza and has documented life there since 1997.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo-contest/2026/Saber-Nuraldin-FIN/1
World Press Photo of the Year Finalist
The Trials of the Achi Women
Victor J. Blue, for The New York Times Magazine
Doña Paulina Ixpatá Alvarado, a plaintiff who was held captive and assaulted for 25 days in 1983, stands with fellow Achi women outside a Guatemala City court in Guatemala, on 30 May 2025. That afternoon, three former civil defense patrollers were sentenced to 40 years in prison for rape and crimes against humanity.
For four decades, a group of Indigenous Maya Achi women in Rabinal lived in the same communities as the men who had raped them, sometimes as neighbors. Guatemala’s civil war led to the genocide of thousands of Maya Achi people by the military and local state-backed paramilitary forces, who used sexual violence as a systematic weapon to subjugate Indigenous communities. In 2011, 36 women broke their silence, launching and winning a 14-year legal battle against their abusers. Their collective resilience is transforming a legacy of wartime impunity into a historic victory for justice.he population still face hunger and malnutrition. The photographer was born in Gaza and has documented life there since 1997.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo-contest/2026/Victor-J-Blue-FIN/1
“When you look at these images — please do it with intention. Think about the intention of the photographer. See how the images are layered, how they are emotional, how they collapse the distance between the person in the frame and you, the viewer.” – Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director, World Press Photo
Visit the World Press Photo Exhibition in Amsterdam
The premiere of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2026, showcasing the best photojournalism and documentary photography of the past year, openned at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, on Friday 24 April 2026.
Book your tickets.
https://www.nieuwekerk.nl/en/tentoonstellingen/world-press-photo-exhibition-2026/
This marks the start of the worldwide tour. See the calendar of upcoming locations.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/calendar
