2023 World Press Photo Contest

The annual World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the last year. Enter your work for free and you could win €1,000 as a regional winner and an additional €5,000 as a global winner, have your work showcased to a global audience, and more.

Entries for the 2023 World Press Photo Contest will open on 1 December 2022 and close on 10 January 2023. We are excited to welcome a multiplicity of stories and a diverse range of photographers from all over the world to enter the contest!

https://www.worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023

What winners receive

Regional winners

Every regional winner of the contest receives:

A monetary prize of €1,000
Inclusion in the annual World Press Photo year-long worldwide exhibition
Inclusion in the annual collectible yearbook, available in multiple languages with a worldwide distribution of more than 30,000 copies
Publication in the online collection and a personal profile on World Press Photo's website
Promotion on World Press Photo's platforms
Invitation to a winners' event
A physical award

In addition, winners are often featured in major publications and invited to speak at public events, exhibition openings, and lectures throughout the year.

24 regional winners will be awarded, one per category (Singles, Stories, Long-Term Projects and Open Format) per region (Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia and Oceania). Read more about the categories and regions.

Global winners

A global jury selects the four global winners: the World Press Photo of the Year, the World Press Photo Story of the Year, the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award, and the World Press Photo Open Format Award. The global winners will be chosen from the regional winners in their respective categories.

In addition to their regional prizes, global winners will also receive:

An additional monetary prize of €5,000
An additional physical award

Honorable Mentions

In addition to the regional and global winners, the jury may choose to draw attention to an entry that deserves special recognition by awarding it an Honorable Mention. Honorable Mentions are reserved for entries that witness or report on significant news moments, events and/or their aftermaths from the contest year (2022). The jury may award a maximum of one Honorable Mention per region, and they can only be selected from the Singles or Stories categories.

Honorable Mention awardees receive:

Inclusion in the annual World Press Photo year-long worldwide exhibition
Inclusion in the annual collectible yearbook, available in multiple languages with a worldwide distribution of more than 30,000 copies
Publication in the online collection and a personal profile on World Press Photo's website
Promotion on World Press Photo's platforms

https://www.worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/prizes

About the World Press Photo Foundation

World Press Photo is a global platform connecting photojournalists, documentary photographers and our worldwide audiences through trustworthy storytelling.

World Press Photo was founded in 1955 when a group of Dutch photographers organized a contest (“World Press Photo”) to expose their work to an international audience. Since then, our mission has expanded. Our contests have grown into one of the world’s most prestigious competitions, rewarding the best in photojournalism and documentary photography. Through our successful worldwide exhibition program, we present to millions of people the stories that matter.

The World Press Photo Foundation is a creative, independent, nonprofit organization, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. We appreciate the support of our global partner, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and our partner PwC.

Before you enter

To get started, make sure you have read the:

Entry rules: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/entry-rules
Information about the categories: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/categories
Code of ethics: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/code-of-ethics
Guidance on how to write captions: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/what-is-required-in-captions
Technical requirements: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/entry-rules/technical-requirements
Verification process (including manipulation rules): worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/verification-process

The 2023 World Press Photo Contest is open for entries from 1 December 2022, 13.00 CET until 10 January 2023, 13.00 CET.

To enter the contest, follow these steps:

Create your personal Picter account.
Register for the 2023 World Press Photo Contest on Picter. This requires your personal data as well as your proof of professional status. If you’re a new entrant (have not entered the contest in the last three years), your registration will be reviewed to ensure it meets our entry rules. We reserve the right to ask for additional information to help clarify your professional status.
While your registration is under review, you can already upload your work, add captions, metadata, and other information.
Submit your entries before the deadline of 10 January 2023, 13.00 CET.

Find out more information: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/how-to-enter

Judging Criteria

The judging process of the 2023 World Press Photo Contest takes place in several rounds over a six-week period, in January and February 2023. It involves regional juries and a global jury, and takes place both online and offline. Whilst the jury is independent of World Press Photo, the organization provides some criteria to guide and support the jury in the judging process. The organization sets these criteria in order to ensure the selection of accurate and visually compelling photojournalism and documentary photography of the past year, that work towards the organization’s mission of connecting the world to the stories that matter.

Without restricting the jury in their deliberations, we ask the jury to consider the following criteria during judging:

Visual quality: this can include creativity, technical skill and visual style, and the edit of the story (where relevant)
Story: this refers to the story and/or issues covered in the photographs, its relevance or significance, and the way in which the photographer has chosen to approach the story
Representation: this refers to the importance of awarding a diverse range of stories and photographers

The organization recognizes that the jury comprises a diverse group of industry experts who each bring relevant knowledge of their regions and insight into different aspects of photojournalism and documentary photography. Therefore whilst the organization sets these criteria, it also gives the jury the freedom to determine and define what makes an entry worthy of an award.

Find out more about the judging process: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/judging-process

Juror information

In each of the six regions of our contest model (Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia and Oceania), a selection of entries per category will first be made by a regional jury. Once the regional juries have made their selection of entries, the global jury (composed of the six regional jury chairs and one additional member, the global jury chair) will decide on 24 regional winners and from those, they will choose the four global winners.

The global jury is assisted by a secretary. The secretary is responsible for all procedural matters and ensures the rules and procedures are fairly and properly applied. The secretary does not contribute to debate on the merits of any entry, and has no vote in the balloting.

The secretary is supported by a jury coordinator, who is a staff member of the World Press Photo Foundation. The coordinator is the principal conduit of information between the jury and the foundation on all procedural matters related to the judging. Throughout the judging process, the role of the World Press Photo Foundation staff is solely to manage the logistics of the judging process, including showing the entries, providing captions, and recording which entries are selected for the next round. No member of staff, including the jury coordinator, contributes to debate on the merits of any entry, and no member of staff has a vote in the balloting.

Jury members for the 2023 Contest will be announced soon: worldpressphoto.org/contest/2023/jury

Full technical requirements

Singles, Stories and Long-Term Projects categories

Photographs entered to the Singles, Stories and Long-Term Projects must meet the following requirements:

Only single-frame photographs may be entered to the above-mentioned categories
Upload photographs with the original pixel size (unless cropped). Do not scale and do not change the resolution.
ICC profile must be embedded. AdobeRGB, sRGB or grayscale Gamma 2.2 are recommended. No CMYK.
Must be uploaded in JPEG format with high-quality compressi

Open Format

Projects entered to the Open Format category must meet the following requirements:

Photo stories (including but not limited to): Polyptychs; multiple exposure images; stitched panoramas; photographic collages; photo stories using alternative or experimental image processing:

Upload 10-30 JPEG image files.
Photographic images must be uploaded in JPEG format with high-quality compression (for example polyptychs, photo collages, etc.) with the original pixel size (unless cropped). Do not scale and do not change the resolution. ICC profile must be embedded. AdobeRGB, sRGB or grayscale Gamma 2.2 are recommended. No CMYK.

Short photo-based videos (maximum duration of 15 minutes):

Video files must be uploaded in .mov or .mp4 and have high-quality compression. Video files must be uploaded directly to Picter.
Video files must have English-language audio or include English subtitles.
Please remove opening and/or closing credits.
Upload 10-25 JPEG image files of the still photography included in the project.
Photographic images must be uploaded in JPEG format with high-quality compression (for example polyptychs, photo collages, etc.) with the original pixel size (unless cropped). Do not scale and do not change the resolution. ICC profile must be embedded. AdobeRGB, sRGB or grayscale Gamma 2.2 are recommended. No CMYK.

Web-based photo projects:

Include the URL to the web-based project.
Upload a video screener of 1 minute. This should be a screen recording of you navigating the story through your web-based environment in order to give the jury some guidance on how to experience the piece.
Upload 10-25 JPEG image files of the photography included in the project.
Photographic images must be uploaded in JPEG format with high-quality compression (for example polyptychs, photo collages, etc.) with the original pixel size (unless cropped). Do not scale and do not change the resolution. ICC profile must be embedded. AdobeRGB, sRGB or grayscale Gamma 2.2 are recommended. No CMYK.