World Press Photo

Location: Palazzo Ducale, Cortile degli Svizzeri 1

Opening days and hours:
Monday – Thursday from 15:00 to 19:00
Friday – Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00

Presenting the results of the foundation’s annual photo contest, the World Press Photo Exhibition 2024 showcases the best and most important photojournalism and documentary photography from around the world, selected by an independent jury. The World Press Photo Exhibition 2024 invites viewers to step outside the news cycle and think critically about important topics in our world. We believe that accurate, diverse, high-quality visual stories benefit the world by creating mutual understanding.

2024 WORLD PRESS PHOTO CONTEST REGIONS, CATEGORIES AND JUDGING PROCESS
Since 1955, the annual World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the last year. To offer a more global and better geographic balance of perspectives, the World Press Photo Foundation launched a regional strategy in 2021, changing the set-up of the annual contest and judging. The 2024 World Press Photo Contest works with six worldwide regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia and Oceania. Entries are judged and awarded in the region in which the photographs and stories are shot, rather than the nationality of the photographer. Each region has four format-based categories: Singles, Stories, Long-Term Projects, and Open Format. These categories welcome entries that document news moments, events and aftermaths, as well as social, political and environmental issues or solutions. For its 67th edition, the contest saw 3,851 photographers from 130 countries enter 61,062 photographs and open format entries. Judging of the 2024 World Press Photo Contest involved regional juries and a global jury. 31 highly qualified jury members from around the world made a selection over six weeks, following a rigorous process. Entries were judged anonymously except for those Open Format entries that have identifying information embedded in the work. In each region, a selection of entries per category was first made by a regional jury, composed of professionals from and/or working in that region, with a range of expertise. With the knowledge of the region that each jury member possesses, they were well-equipped to judge the stories and be able to put them into cultural, political, and social contexts. Once the regional juries made their selection, the global jury–composed of the six regional jury chairs and the global jury chair–decided on the 24 regional winners, and from those, the four global winners.

2024 WORLD PRESS PHOTO CONTEST REGIONAL WINNERS
Selected by an independent jury out of more than 61,000 entries by 3,851 photographers from 130 countries, the 2024 World Press Photo Contest winners, including honorable mentions are 31 photographers from 24 countries: countries: Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Myanmar, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, and Venezuela. This year, the jury made the exceptional decision to include two special mentions in the 2024 World Press Photo Contest selection, saying:
“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.” Selected from more than 61,000 entries, the award-winning works document some of the most pressing issues facing the world today, from devastating conflicts and political upheaval to the climate crisis and the safe passage of migrants. In bringing together such important stories, the selection encourages greater understanding and awareness of current events, as well as serves as a reminder of the need for press freedom in all corners of the world. The regional contest model, launched in 2021, supports a greater diversity of stories and storytellers from around the world. In total, 20 of the winners are local to the region in which their stories are from.

2024 WORLD PRESS PHOTO CONTEST GLOBAL WINNERS
From the 24 regional winners, the 2024 Contest jury selected the four global winners: the World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo Story of the Year, World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award, and World Press Photo Open Format Award. A Palestinian Woman Embraces the Body of Her Niece by Mohammed Salem, Reuters was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year. Valim-babena by Lee-Ann Olwage, for GEO, was awarded the World Press Photo Story of the Year. The Two Walls by Alejandro Cegarra, The New York Times/Bloomberg, received the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award. War Is Personal by Julia Kochetova received the World Press Photo Open Format Award. The four global winners of the 2024 World Press Photo Contest document irreversible personal loss in Gaza, family and dementia in Madagascar, migrants at the Mexico border, and life under war in Ukraine. The award-winning works show the importance of press and documentary photography and are a testament to the courage, skill, and empathy shown by photographers across the world. “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. 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.” – Fiona Shields, head of Photography at The Guardian and 2024 World Press Photo Contest global jury chair.

ABOUT THE WORLD PRESS PHOTO FOUNDATION

The World Press Photo Foundation is a global platform connecting photojournalists, documentary photographers and our worldwide audiences through trustworthy storytelling. World Press Photo was founded in 1955 when a group of Dutch photographers organized a contest (“World Press Photo”) to expose their work to an international audience. Since then, the World Press Photo Contest has grown into one of the world’s most prestigious competitions, rewarding the best in photojournalism and documentary photography from around the world. Through a successful worldwide exhibition program, the World Press Photo Foundation presents to millions of people the stories that matter. The World Press Photo Foundation is a creative, independent, nonprofit organization, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. World Press Photo receives support from strategic partners, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, PwC and Fujifilm.