World Press Photo Winner

World Press Photo named Carol Guzy’s “Separated by ICE” its 2026 Photo of the Year on Thursday, honoring an image of a migrant family torn apart in a New York courthouse. (worldpressphoto.org) The photograph was taken on August 26, 2025, at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City after an immigration court hearing, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a man identified as Luis. (worldpressphoto.org) World Press Photo said the image was made in one of the few U.S. federal buildings where photographers were allowed to work, in a single hallway where Guzy and other photographers returned repeatedly to document arrests. (worldpressphoto.org) The winning frame came from Guzy’s larger project, “ICE Arrests at New York Court,” which shows Luis’s daughters clinging to him as officers detain him; World Press Photo said he was the family’s sole breadwinner. (worldpressphoto.org) The award puts U.S. immigration enforcement at the center of a contest that organizers say drew 57,376 photographs from 3,747 photographers in 141 countries. The Photo of the Year was selected from 42 contest winners. (worldpressphoto.org; worldpressphoto.org) This year’s broader winners documented wars, protests, wildfires, climate damage, and hunger, including projects from Gaza, Kyiv, Los Angeles, Nepal, and Pakistan. World Press Photo said the entries offered “a powerful visual record of life across the world.” (worldpressphoto.org; theatlantic.com) Two finalists underscored that global scope: a photograph of Palestinians facing famine in Gaza by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, and a photograph tied to survivors of sexual violence granted justice in Guatemala by Luis Tato for Agence France-Presse. (worldpressphoto.org) Guzy is a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner who worked at The Miami Herald and The Washington Post before joining ZUMA Press. Her career Pulitzers came in 1986, 1995, 2000, and 2011. (pulitzer.org; carolguzy.com) In interviews carried by public radio affiliates on Thursday, Guzy said the courthouse image showed why independent photographers still matter when government policy plays out in public buildings. (wcbe.org) The picture that won is not a battlefield image or a disaster scene. It is a courthouse hallway in the United States, where a family’s separation became the year’s defining press photograph. (worldpressphoto.org)