On 3 December 1955, the first annual exhibition ‘World Press Photo 55’ opened its doors. Believing in the power of showing and the importance of seeing high-quality visual stories, we have since organized nearly 3000 exhibitions, and over 130 education and outreach events, in 522 cities in 122 countries. Every year, we work with international partners on our exhibitions program as part of our mission to connect the world to the stories that matter.
Presenting the results of the foundation’s annual contests, the annual World Press Photo Exhibition showcases the best visual journalism of the last year. We also specially curate exhibitions and projects, working with themes in our archive or the diverse accounts of the world spotlighted in our Develop programs.
Our annual exhibition premieres each year in Amsterdam in April, before beginning its worldwide tour to over 120 cities and 50 countries. We work with local and international exhibition partners to reach a global audience of over four million people each year.
Selected by an independent jury from 73,996 photographs entered by 4,282 photojournalists from 125 countries, the World Press Photo Exhibition 2020 presents the winning images from the 63rd annual Photo Contest.
With our annual exhibition, we showcase the stories that matter to a global audience. In 2019, our annual exhibition travelled to more than 120 locations, including many countries reported to have ‘difficult’ to ‘very serious’ press freedom situations by the World Press Freedom 2019 Index.
While we aimed to extend and diversify our exhibition locations in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has badly impacted us and our partners, and many of the 125 locations planned this year were canceled or postponed. Together with our partners, the World Press Photo Foundation is closely monitoring health recommendations to continue bringing you the stories that matter while ensuring our community’s safety.
This is a challenging time for the global community. In these difficult times, supporting the conditions that make visual journalism possible and sharing the work of visual journalists to a global audience is more important than ever.
