The 2022 World Press Photo Contest works with 6 worldwide regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia and Oceania. Entries will be judged in the region in which they have been taken, for example a single photograph taken in Canada would be entered into North and Central America in the Singles category. Find out more about the regions
here.
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.
These format-based categories encompass all thematic categories from previous contests – such as general news, spot news, contemporary issues, environment, nature, sports, portraits – therefore entries on a wide range of themes may be submitted to the appropriate format-based category.
Singles
- Single frame photographs.
- All singles must have been shot in 2021.
- All singles will be eligible for the World Press Photo of the Year.
Stories
- Stories can contain between 3 and 10 single frame photographs.
- All photographs entered into the stories category must have been shot in 2020 or 2021. At least one photograph in a story must have been shot in 2021.
- All stories will be eligible for the World Press Story of the Year.
Long-Term Projects
- Projects on a single theme containing between 24-30 single frame photographs.
- An entry must contain photographs from at least three different years, and a minimum of four photographs must have been shot in 2021.
- All projects will be eligible for the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award.
Open Format
- The Open Format category welcomes a range and/or mixture of storytelling mediums (including but not limited to): Polyptychs; multiple exposure images; stitched panoramas; photographic collages; interactive documentaries (for example AR, VR, web-based etc); short documentary videos of up to 15 minutes.
- The main visual content of the project must be still photography, but can be presented in combination with (but not limited to) video, animation, graphics, illustrations, sound or text.
- Entries in this category must have been produced or first published in 2021.
- All projects that include text or audio elements must either have English-language audio and/or text or must be subtitled in English.
- Entries in this category must be accessible online.
- All projects will be eligible for the World Press Photo Open Format Award.
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