World Press Photo regional winners

World Press Photo announced the 2026 regional winners on April 9, selecting 42 winning entries across six regions from 57,376 photographs submitted by 3,747 photographers in 141 countries. (worldpressphoto.org) The contest is organized by region and category, with winners in Singles, Stories, and Long-Term Projects across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Oceania, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and West, Central, and South Asia. An independent jury used six regional panels and one global jury to choose the winners. (worldpressphoto.org) World Press Photo said the 2026 selection centers on “the human cost of conflict,” alongside climate pressure, displacement, protest, recovery, and daily life under political strain. The foundation’s release named work from the United States, Ukraine, Nepal, Pakistan, and Palestine among the awarded projects. (worldpressphoto.org) Several of the most widely circulated winning images came from active conflict or political flashpoints. They include Evgeniy Maloletka’s photograph of a Russian attack on Kyiv, Alex Kent’s image of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, and Tyrone Siu’s “A Desperate Plea,” published by Reuters. (petapixel.com) Other winners moved away from battlefield imagery and toward slower stories about institutions, landscape, and memory. The 2026 list also includes Paula Hornickel’s “Emma the Social Robot,” Roie Galitz’s “Polar Bear on Sperm Whale,” and Victor J. Blue’s “The Trials of the Achi Women.” (petapixel.com) The regional model has been in place since 2021, when World Press Photo reworked the contest to broaden geographic representation and bring more local context into judging. The 2026 edition is the 69th annual contest and covers photojournalism and documentary photography made in 2025. (dpreview.com, worldpressphoto.org) The regional winners are the first stage of the contest’s top honors cycle. World Press Photo said the 2026 Photo of the Year winner, along with two finalists, will be announced on April 17. (worldpressphoto.org) The result is a contest lineup shaped less by a single defining event than by repeated images of war, grief, protest, and survival across continents. World Press Photo’s public collection now presents the winners as a portrait of 2025 told through regional reporting. (worldpressphoto.org, worldpressphoto.org)