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, we launched a new regional strategy this year, changing the set-up of the annual contest and the judging.
2022 Contest winners
Selected by an independent jury out of 64,823 entries by 4,066 photographers from 130 countries, the 2022 World Press Photo Contest regional winners are 24 photographers from 23 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine, Russia, Sudan, and Thailand.
Providing a variety of perspectives from all corners of the globe, the awarded works present courageous stories, invaluable insights, and a diversity of interpretations – from the undeniable effects of the climate crisis to civil rights movements, and from access to education to preserving indigenous practices and identity. View the 2022 Contest regional winners.
From the 24 regional winners in each of the four categories of our new contest model, the 2022 Contest jury selected these four global winners:
World Press Photo of the Year: Kamloops Residential School by Amber Bracken, Canada, for The New York Times
World Press Photo Story of the Year: Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott, Australia, for National Geographic/Panos Pictures
World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award: Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida, Brazil, for Folha de São Paulo/Panos Pictures
World Press Photo Open Format Award:Blood is a Seed by Isadora Romero, Ecuador
Rena Effendi, 2022 Contest global jury chair, said about the winners: “The stories and photographs of the global winners are interconnected. All four of them, in their own unique ways, address the consequences of humanity’s rush for progress, and its devastating effects on our planet. These projects not only reflect upon the immediate urgency of the climate crisis, but also give us an insight into possible solutions.”
“Together the global winners pay tribute to the past, while inhabiting the present and looking toward the future,” she added.Learn more about the global winners.
Judging of the 2022 World Press Photo Contest took place from 17 January to 2 March 2022 and involved regional juries and a global jury. The regional juries first made a selection of entries per category in their regions, after which the global jury decided on the regional winners, and from those, the global winners. Learn more about the judging process.
“The new contest model pushed us out of our comfort zone to think outside the box. Each jury member brought along their expertise on relevant issues of their respective regions, and we built on this knowledge as a team. The resulting selection of winners reflects upon the state of the world from a deeper and more nuanced vantage point,” said 2022 Contest global jury chair Rena Effendi. Watch the 2022 Contest jury discuss their choices Read the 2022 Contest jury report
