World Press Photo has announced the regional winners of its prestigious annual photo competition, highlighting the best photojournalism and documentary photography of 2024.
“Each year, jurors from all over the globe review tens of thousands of photos to find a selection that is visually stunning, tells stories that matter, and represents our shared world,” explains Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo. “This year’s selection includes stories of desperation, hunger, war, and loss — but also of perseverance, courage, love, family, dreams, and more butterflies than anyone has a right to expect.”
There are 24 winning projects and six honorable mentions in total. This year’s jury also decided to award a pair of special mentions in its overall selection, which is an exceptionally unusual decision.
The winning and honored images were chosen from a staggering 61,062 entries by 3,851 photographers from 130 different countries. They were first judged by a half dozen regional juries, and the winners were then picked by a global jury comprised of the regional jury chairs plus the global jury chair, Fiona Shields, Head of Photography at The Guardian.
“These final selected works are a tapestry of our world today, centered on images we believe were made with respect and integrity, that can speak universally and resonate far beyond their origins,” remarks Shields.
“This is an opportunity to applaud the work of press and documentary photographers everywhere — made with courage, intelligence, and ingenuity — and to amplify the importance of the stories they are telling, often in unimaginable circumstances.”
The regional winners are showcased below and organized by region. For photo series and long-term projects, selected images are included. The full gallery of photos is available on the World Press Photo website.
Africa
From 2020 until a ceasefire in late 2022, violent conflict between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) held northern Ethiopia in a state of fear and destruction.
“Kibrom Berhane joined the Tigray Defense Forces (the armed wing of the TPLF) in early 2021, after government forces attacked his village in eastern Tigray. He fought until wounded by a grenade, losing his leg, a month before the peace agreement. Impressed by Kibrom’s determination to return to his everyday life, the photographer wanted to show the aftermath of the war, revealing its hidden consequences,” explains World Press Photo.
In Madagascar, a lack of public awareness concerning dementia results in people showing symptoms often being stigmatized.
Paul Rakotozandriny, 91, has been cared for by his daughter, Fara Rafaraniriana, 41. The winning photo story shows the Malagasy principle of “vailm-babena,” the duty of children to help their parents.
The 2011 revolution in Tunisia, which led to the “Arab Spring,” inspired hope among Tunisians seeking democracy, social justice, and freedom. However, political instability has had many adverse effects since then, especially on younger people. This project looks at young Tunisians looking for a better future.
“In May 2021 a boat from Mauritania full of dead men was found off the coast of the Caribbean Island of Tobago. Who were these men and why were they on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean? Two visual journalists sought answers, uncovering a story about migrants from West Africa who seek opportunity in Europe via an increasingly popular but treacherous Atlantic route,” writes World Press Photo.
During the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, more than 100,000 women are believed to have been victimized by sexual violence. This project looks at the stigmatization these survivors face, including issues of isolation and rejection.
Asia
In this powerful image, Inas Abu Maamar, 36, holds the body of her niece, Saly, killed at age five along with four other family members by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza on October 17, 2023.
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the already devastated economy only got worse. A drought and major earthquakes worsened the dire situation. The United Nations believes that 97% of Afghans live below the poverty line. This powerful photo series looks at the realities of intersecting crisis in the war-torn country.
“This project is a private visual record that aims to explore the concept of family photos. In close collaboration with the family, the photographer tells the story of Jiuer, a young mother of three in northern China who gains more understanding and appreciation for life in her final years after being diagnosed with cancer. Before her surgery, Jiuer invited the photographer to take some family photos, and later, when her condition deteriorated, asked her to record the time she spent with her children,” World Press Photo explains.
Dementia is a leading cause of disability among older adults. In Japan, in part due to the nation’s long lifespan, about seven million people are expected to live with symptomatic dementia in 2025.
This project aims to visualize the large social issues concerning the condition, plus the inner lives of those who suffer from the debilitating disease.
“This project documents the Miya community that depends on land near the transnational Brahmaputra River for their livelihood and their identity in the eyes of the state. As their land erodes due to worsening floods, they face a fight against both nature and nation,” writes World Press Photo.
Europe
In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria. The first of a series of earthquakes killed more than 55,000 people and displaced another 3.3 million.
“The horror of the father’s situation as he refused to leave his daughter buried under the rubble especially moved the jury. They felt that the image both portrayed the tragedy and highlighted the combined consequences of natural disaster and corruption,” explains World Press Photo.
Mesut Hançer is seen here holding the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, who was killed in the earthquake while sleeping at her grandmother’s home in southern Turkey.
On June 6, 2023, explosions damaged the wall of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka Dam in southeastern Ukraine, which caused extensive, damaging floods in Kherson. Approximately 17,500 homes were flooded, and hundreds of people were killed.
“Germany positions itself as a leader in the transition towards renewable energy by 2030, yet remains heavily dependent on coal for energy production. In the Rhineland, forests have been cleared and villages demolished since the 1970s to make way for the Hambach and Garzweiler open-pit coal mines. In 2012, activists began occupying parts of Hambach Forest and later the village of Lützerath to resist these measures, managing by 2023 to save a remainder of the forest and five of six such villages scheduled for destruction,” says World Press Photo.
Although peace is not on the horizon in Ukraine, and casualties continue to accumulate, international attention is primarily elsewhere. Photographer Julia Kochetova has created a personal website that combines documentary-style photography, photojournalism, and a diary to show the world what it is like to live in war every day.
“The Satyrus effendi is a rare butterfly species named after Rustam Effendi, a Soviet Azerbaijani entomologist and the photographer’s father,” says World Press Photo.
Photographer Rena Effendi has been retracing her father’s footsteps, traversing a new war-torn region in search of the butterfly.
North and Central America
Due to high temperatures and dry conditions, forest fires raged across Canada in the summer of 2023. Fires affected all 13 provinces, especially the northern parts of Quebec.
“The jury felt that the iconic composition of this single image — reminiscent of a monument — stands as a powerful symbol of our losing battle against climate change, and a metaphor for our collective arrogance in the face of the crisis,” explains World Press Photo.
The eastern migratory monarch butterfly population has been in rapid decline since the mid-1990s, dropping by more than 80%. People in Canada, the United States, and Mexico are working together to reverse the worrying trend.
In recent years, Mexico has transformed from a nation that welcomes migrants and asylum seekers to being a country with strict immigration policies. For those trying to reach Mexico for a better life, the situation at the border is now one of significant danger.
“This project combines fiction with fact in order to confront the US space program’s historical exclusion of openly LGBTQI+ astronauts. In a review of the NASA and United States National Archives, the photographer found no documentation on the contributions of the queer community to the space program. The absence inspired her to imagine The Gay Space Agency, a diverse and inclusionary institution that commemorates and celebrates the history of queer astronauts,” World Press Photo explains of Mackenzie Calle’s award-winning project.
Isle de Jean-Charles, 130 kilometers (81 miles) south of New Orleans’s coast, is sinking into the bayou. Since 1955, 98% of its surface area has disappeared.
In 2016, federal funds were sent to Louisiana to relocate the island’s few remaining residents. Since then, 30 households have been relocated. They are the first community covered by a federal climate change resettlement program in the United States.
South America
“In 2023, the Amazon experienced its most intense drought since recordkeeping began. The drought disproportionately impacted Indigenous, rural, and river communities. While Porto Praia has no road access and is normally reachable only by river, the drought meant that residents had to walk for kilometers along the dry riverbed to reach their homes, capturing the gravity of the global environmental crisis and drought in the Amazon in one moment,” explains World Press Photo. The winning image below shows a fisherman walking across the dry riverbed of a branch of the Amazon on October 13, 2023, in Brazil.
Nearly 82% of Venezuelans live in poverty. This photo story shows how the country’s reliance on oil has impacted the environment and its people.
“Mapuche communities are the Indigenous inhabitants of territories that are now part of Argentina and Chile… Discrimination and punishment of Mapuche activists persist, despite new laws apparently supporting Mapuche rights. For many Mapuche, this presents not solely a territorial dispute: the land is part of their cultural and spiritual identity,” says World Press Photo.
From 1980 to 2000, revolutionary insurgency groups in the Peruvian Amazon terrorized, tortured, and murdered LGBTQI+ people. This award-winning project collects the untold stories of some of these victims.
On October 30, 2022, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ousted incumbent Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Extreme-right Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Brazilian Presidential Palace, National Congress, and Supreme Court buildings through coordinated action. Violent protestors and insurrectionists targeted many journalists documenting the insurrection.
Southeast Asia and Oceania
The 500-person community on Kioa Island is comprised of people who left Tuvalu in the 1940s due to rising sea levels. Their “new” community is facing similar challenges, including eroding shorelines. Reduced landmass and eroding shorelines could displace more than 600 communities around Fiji in the coming years.
China continues to enforce its claims in the South China Sea, raising international fears about the region becoming embroiled in all-out war. More than a third of the global shipping industry goes through these waters.
In Myanmar, in February 2021, a military coup replaced the government. The military violently suppressed protests and opposition, leading to an armed resistance by the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and, ultimately, civil war. This winning long-term project follows the struggles of these rebel forces as they aim to take back their country.
“A striking meditation on the photographer’s home country that connects its colonial past with its precarious climate future. This project presents a series of manipulated and recontextualized images, conveying the artist’s personal feelings of frustration and horror in response to the devastating 2019-2020 wildfires in the state of New South Wales, Australia. These fires were some of the largest ever recorded in the country and fires will only get worse in size and intensity as the Earth continues to warm,” World Press Photo explains.
Industrial waste has “toxified” the Cileungsi River in Indonesia. The thick foam seen in this image is the result of waste runoff.
Jury Special Mentions
This year, the jury chose to include two special mentions in the awards.
“These two special mentions reflect the gravity of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, the extreme suffering of civilians, and its global political impact. While each photograph shows a single individual in the aftermath of a horrific attack, the contrast between the scenes helps viewers understand the differing scales of devastation without minimizing the individual suffering. We also wish to pay tribute to photographers reporting on this war, who are subjected to huge amounts of trauma, risk, and personal loss, particularly in Gaza,” World Press Photo explains.
What’s Next for World Press Photo 2024
Now that these regional winners have been selected, the jury now faces the monumental task of picking four global winners. These awards will be announced on April 18 at the Flagship World Press Photo Exhibition in Amsterdam.
The awarded stories, including the regional winners seen here, will be shown to millions of visitors as part of an international exhibition in over 60 locations.
People can also view all the winning photographs online at the World Press Photo website.
Image credits: All photos courtesy of World Press Photo. The individual photographers are credited in the image captions.