The World Press Photo Foundation has announced the regional winners of World Press Photo 2023, the world’s most prestigious photojournalism and documentary photography contest. This announcement includes 24 winning authors from the 6 regions into which the contest divides global entry, in each of the 4 categories: Single Photographs, Stories, Long-Term Projects, and Open Format, plus 6 honorable mentions, the contest of most prestigious photojournalism in the world.
Below, you will find the complete list of winners, although the great news for our country is that two spaniard photographers have been honored!
César Dezfuli wins a World Press Photo from the Europe region in the Open Format category, with the “Passengers” project that tells the personal stories of migrants who crossed the Mediterranean. Read an exclusive interview with Dezfuli at this link.
And Emilio Morenatti receives an honorable mention for “War Wounds”, a very personal report on amputated civilians in the war in Ukraine. Soon, we will also publish an interview with the author.
When will World Press Photo 2023 arrive in Barcelona?
All regional winners will exhibit their work at the World Press Photo 2023 exhibition in Barcelona, which can be visited from November 9 to December 17.
The Barcelona exhibition will be organized by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, for the ninth consecutive year, and will be held once again at the CCCB – Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, with the main collaboration of the Fundación Banco Sabadell.
Tickets will go on sale next October.
Participation and themes of World Press Photo 2023
The World Press Photo 2023 contest has had the participation of 3,752 photographers from 127 countries and 60,448 photographs, with stories about conflicts, culture, identity, migration, memories of a lost past and glimpses of a near and distant future.
Representing events and themes from 2022 that were sometimes missed by the media, the winning entries in World Press Photo 2023 focus on some of the most pressing issues facing the world today, from the devastating war in Ukraine and the historic protests in Iran, to the reality of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and the many faces of the climate crisis from Morocco to Australia, Peru and Kazakhstan.
Of the 24 regional winners, 16 are locals (natives or residents) of the region in which they have developed their stories, and come from 23 countries: Germany, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Spain , United States, Philippines, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Mexico, Myanmar, Peru, South Africa, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Brent Lewis, Photo Editor for The New York Times, Co-Founder of Diversify Photo and Chairman of this year’s Global Jury, said: “The photographs chosen to represent 2022 are indicative of this moment and will serve as historical documents of what was the year so future generations can look back and hopefully learn from them.”
Two Spaniard authors, among the winners
The World Press Photo 2023 contest has recognized the work of two Spaniard authors. The young documentary photographer César Dezfuli (Madrid, 1991) has won a World Press Photo 2023 in the Open Format category of the European region with “Passengers”, a project started in 2016 and still ongoing about the complex reality of migration in the central Mediterranean, and the photojournalist Emilio Morenatti (Zaragoza, 1969) has received an honorable mention for “War Wounds”, a very personal report on civilians wounded in war in Ukraine.
Dezfuli’s multimedia project is based on an event that occurred on August 1, 2016. That day, a rubber boat with more than a hundred people was found adrift off the coast of Libya, one of hundreds rescued in the last years. That year, all-time highs were reached: 181,436 migrants were safely rescued, while 4,576 lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea. In an attempt to put a name and a face to this reality, to humanize this tragedy, César Dezfuli began the “Passengers” project, portraying all the people who traveled aboard that boat.
The “Passengers” project, presented as a multimedia website for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, highlights various personal stories from the people who were traveling on that ship as they try to establish new lives on the European continent.
The fortunate coincidence that this same project, in a previous version, was one of the finalists for the I Beca Joana Biarnés, a Scholarship for Young Photojournalists, organized by the Photographic Foundation, also responsible for the World Press Photo exhibition in Barcelona. In addition, in 2017 Dezfuli had already presented a first approach to the project at DOCfield, the documentary photography festival in Barcelona that was also organized by the Photographic Foundation.
Read our exclusive interview with Dezfuli at this link.
On the other hand, Emilio Morenatti received an honorable mention from World Press Photo 2023 for his report “War Wounds”, where he portrayed civilians who suffered amputations as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It is a very personal work, due to the photojournalist himself lost a leg in a war in Afghanistan. Here you have an exclusive interview with Emilio Morenatti.
The regional winners of the World Press Photo 2023
Last year 2022, World Press Photo decided to implement a new territorial model, dividing the world into 6 regions to ensure a greater representation and diversity of authors and stories. In addition, since then, it has eliminated the thematic limitations of previous editions and created new categories focused on the format: Single Photographs, Stories, Long-Term Projects and Open Format.
The regional winners of each category compete respectively for World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo for Storie of the Year, World Press Photo for Long-Term Project and World Press Photo for Open Format. The four global awards will be announced on April 20.
This is the complete list of regional winners of this edition of the contest:
AFRICA
Singles
The Big Forget
Lee-Ann Olwage, Sudáfrica, Bob & Diane Fund, para Der Spiegel
Stories
New Capital
Nick Hannes, Bélgica, Panos Pictures
Long-Term Projects
Before It’s Gone
M’hammed Kilito, Marruecos
Open Format
Here, The Doors Don’t Know Me
Mohamed Mahdy, Egipto
Honorable Mention
The Nomad’s Final Journey
Jonathan Fontaine, Francia, Hans Lucas
ASIA
Singles
Shireen Abu Akleh’s Funeral
Maya Levin, EEUU, Associated Press
Stories
The Price of Peace in Afghanistan
Mads Nissen, Dinamarca, Politiken/Panos Pictures
Long-Term Projects
Battered Waters
Anush Babajanyan, Armenia, VII Agency/National Geographic Society
Open Format
Woman, Life, Freedom
Hossein Fatemi, Irán
Honorable Mention
Untitled
Ahmad Halabisaz, Irán
Honorable Mention
Faint Light in the Unfinished Building
Weimin Chu, China
EUROPE
Singles
Yana and Victor
Alkis Konstantinidis, Grecia, Reuters
Stories
The Siege of Mariupol
Evgeniy Maloletka, Ucrania, Associated Press
Long-Term Projects
Net-Zero Transition
Simone Tramonte, Italia
Open Format
Passengers
César Dezfuli, España/Irán para De Volkskrant
Honorable Mention
War Wounds
Emilio Morenatti, España, Associated Press
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Singles
The Dying River
Jonas Kakó, Alemania, Panos Pictures
Stories
Maria’s Journey
Carlos Barria, Argentina, Reuters
Long-Term Projects
Beautiful Poison
Cristopher Rogel Blanquet, México, W. Eugene Smith Grant/
National System of Art Creators FONCA/Getty Images
Open Format
The Voice of New York is Drill
Ashley Peña, EEUU, para New York Magazine
SOUTH AMERICA
Singles
Oil Spill in Lima
Musuk Nolte, Perú/México, Bertha Foundation
Stories
Alpaqueros
Alessandro Cinque, Italia, Pulitzer Center/National Geographic
Long-Term Projects
I Can’t Hear the Birds
Fabiola Ferrero, Venezuela
Open Format
Shifting
Johanna Alarcón, Ecuador, Magnum Foundation/Panos Pictures
Honorable Mention
World Champions
Tomás Francisco Cuesta, Argentina, Agence France-Presse
SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
Singles
Retrieving the Dead
Mauk Kham Wah, Myanmar
Stories
Home for the Golden Gays
Hannah Reyes Morales, Filipinas, para The New York Times
Long-Term Projects
Death of a Nation
Kimberly dela Cruz, Filipinas, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, VII Mentor Program
Open Format
Australian Floods in Infrared
Chad Ajamian, Australia
Honorable Mention
Part of Me
Nadia Shira Cohen, United States, para The New York Times
What else will the exhibition offer in Barcelona?
For more than two decades, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation has defended documentary photography and photojournalism as tools to understand the world and encourage social transformation.
For this reason, Photographic has been bringing to the city of Barcelona the exhibition of the most prestigious international photojournalism competition in the world for almost 20 years. But it is not limited to showing the winning images, but also develops a program of complementary activities and provides a team of experts who offer exceptional guided tours.
The guided visits designed by the educational area of the Photographic Foundation take the experience beyond the simple observation of the winning photographs, delving into the stories captured, the way they are shown and the current situation of the photojournalistic profession.
With the aim of bringing current issues closer to the greatest number of people and delving into their context, the program of guided tours is extended for another week -always with prior reservation-, aimed at the general public, educational centers and also companies.
In the last edition, Photographic offered guided visits to more than 6,400 people and more than 220 school groups, sharing the necessary tools to visually understand contemporary news. In total, more than 62,000 people visited the exhibition.
Many other news and activities related to the Barcelona exhibition will be announced in due course on this website and through the @photographicsv social networks.
