World Press Photo Contest – Global Winners

The World Press Photo Foundation has announced the global winners of this year’s World Press Photo Contest – selected from the 24 regional winners announced in March.

The World Press Photo of the Year Award goes to Evgeniy Maloletka for his image of the siege of Mariupol. With his harrowing photograph of a pregnant woman being carried through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital, he captured the human suffering caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in a single frame.

Mads Nissen was selected in the Story of the Year category. His winning entry is comprised of nine haunting but beautiful photographs captured in Afghanistan – serving as a poignant reminder of the people who must now live under Taliban rule, without support from international aid organisations.

The World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award goes to Anush Babajanyan for her series on water distribution in Central Asia, where four landlocked countries compete over their shared water supplies – a situation intensified by the climate crisis. Most importantly, however, the project shows the strong spirit of those who must now adapt to new realities.

The winner in this year’s Open Format category is Mohamed Mahdy, who – together with the residents of Al Max, a fishing community in Alexandria, Egypt – created an elegy to a rapidly disappearing way of life. As well as building an archive of memories, he also invited people from around the world to communicate with Al Max’s residents via an interactive website.

The selected entries of the regional and global winners will be presented in a travelling exhibition, with stations in 60 cities across the world – including Amsterdam (starting on April 22), Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Taipei, Singapore, Mexico City, Jakarta, Sydney and Toronto, to name just few.