The WARS Photography Award acknowledges the significance of visual storytelling in documenting the impact of wars and conflicts and seeks to support photojournalists who use their camera to inform the public about these realities. We look forward to receiving submissions that capture the raw and emotional impact of wars and conflicts, and to celebrating the winners of this year's award.

About Call

The WARS Photography Award is pleased to announce the fourth edition of the prize dedicated to photojournalists who document wars, conflicts, and their consequences. Following the successful editions of 2019, 2021, and 2023, the WARS Photography Award once again aims to support photographers working in hostile environments, providing a critical insight into the impact of conflicts on communities.

What winners receive

The winners will be announced on the websites www.atlanteguerre.it and www.unimondo.org and on the social media channels of the WARS Photography Award linked to these two sites.

The first-place winner will receive a cash prize of €2,000, while two runners-up will receive €1,000 each. The winning projects will also be exhibited in a WARS touring exhibition at Gallerie Piedicastello in Trento in spring 2026.

About the organization

The association "46° Parallelo" ETS was founded in Trento, Italy, in 2008 by a group of journalists and reporters dedicated to documenting conflict areas. Over nearly two decades, the association has participated in numerous educational and journalistic initiatives in schools, universities, and museums, including talks, lectures, photography exhibitions, films, and documentaries. "46° Parallelo" ETS is the owner and publisher of the annual publication The Atlas of Wars and Conflict, a global map of conflicts produced in collaboration with Amnesty International, UNHCR, and MSF. For more information, please visit www.atlanteguerre.it. The WARS Photography Award is a project developed in collaboration with Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino, with internationally recognized photojournalist Fabio Bucciarelli serving as its artistic director.

How to Enter

The WARS Photography Award accepts photo reportages consisting of 15–20 images on a single subject related to wars and conflicts. At least 10 of the images must have been taken after 1 January 2024. Long-term projects are also welcome. Both published and unpublished stories are eligible.

Judging Criteria

All submitted works will be reviewed by a panel of experienced judges, who will select the winners based on the quality, creativity, and impact of the submissions. The judging process will be fair and impartial, and the decisions of the judges will be final.

Previous Winners

In the WARS 2019 edition, the first prize was awarded to Laurence Geai for her powerful work on the Mosul conflict, with images of civilians trapped in clashes with ISIS. The runners-up in that edition were Manu Brabo, a Spanish photojournalist, for his work on the conflict in Ukraine, and Dar Yasin, whose work on Kashmir was also recognized with a Pulitzer Prize.

In the WARS 2021 edition, there were two sections: one dedicated exclusively to the pandemic and its effects, and the other, as always, focused on work produced in conflict zones. For the COVID section, the winner was Michele Spatari with No Place Like Hope: the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. The two runners-up were Rodrigo Abd with Naked Peru and Yan Boechat with Death in the Amazon. In the War Stories section, the winner was Giles Clarke with Yemen; Conflict+Chaos, and the two runners-up were Finbarr O'Reilly with Tigrai Crisis and Stepanov Anatolii with War in Ukraine.

The third edition of WARS saw a notable increase both in the quantity and quality of entries, with more than 3,000 photographs from 47 countries. The winning project by Siegfried Modola, Inside Myanmar's Armed Uprising, offers a powerful insight into the ongoing war between Karen rebel groups and the Myanmar government. Santi Palacios, a Spanish photojournalist known for his long-term work on the Mediterranean migration crisis, turned his lens to Ukraine in 2022. His series The Bucha Massacre reveals his rare ability to depict human suffering with depth, respect, and emotional precision. Finally, the project by Federico Ríos, Paths of Desperate Hope: Crossing the Darién Gap, follows thousands of migrants from South America, Afghanistan, and the Middle East along one of the world's most dangerous routes, between Colombia and Panama, as they risk everything in search of a new life..