World Press Photo announces the winners of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest

The 2026 Contest winners are the best of the 57,376 photographs entered by 3,747 photographers from 141 countries. Amongst this year’s winners are stories you’ll recognize, and stories overlooked. Broad perspectives, and intimate insider views. Conflict and crisis, but also resistance, resilience, and hidden traditions. Together, these projects form an urgent portrait of our world today.

“This is a critical moment — for democracy, for truth, for the question of what we as a society are willing to see and call out and what we are willing to ignore. The photographers recognized here have done their part. They have made the record. Now it is our turn to look.”, said the global jury chair for 2026, Kira Pollack, a Harvard Shorenstein Center fellow.

The World Press Photo of the Year and two finalists will be announced on April, 23 in Amsterdam.

The awarded stories will be shown to millions of people as part of the annual World Press Photo traveling exhibition in over 60 locations around the world. In Montreal, these photographs will be on display from 26 August to 12 October 2026 at the Marché Bonsecours in Old Montreal, as part of the 19 edition of the World Press Photo Montreal exhibition, one of the most popular of its kind in the world.