World Press Photo has announced the regional winners of its 2023 Photo Contest, which highlights the work of photojournalists and documentary photographers around the world.
The 24 winning entries are selected by a global jury consisting of the regional jury chairs plus the global jury chair, New York Times photo editor and co-founder of Diversify Photo, Brent Lewis. The four global winners, including Photo of the Year, will be chosen from among the regional winners and will be announced on 20 April 2023.
All winning images will be shown in a series of exhibitions starting on 22 April in cities around the world including Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Zurich, Tel Aviv, Rome, Sydney, Toronto, Jakarta, Taipei, Singapore and Mexico City
See some of the regional winners below:
World Press Photo 2023: Asia Stories regional winner
The Price of Peace in Afghanistan by Mads Nissen, Politiken/Panos Pictures
The Price of Peace in Afghanistan. Friday prayer at a mosque in central Kabul. Sohalullah Hajrat,19-year-old, is keeping guard at the site protecting it from attacks of any kind. He has already been with the Taliban for about three years despite his on 19 years. © Mads Nissen, Politiken/Panos Pictures.
A heavily armed Taliban checkpoint outside Bamiyan. For years, the Taliban waged guerilla warfare against foreign troops and the Afghan army; now they must guard against attacks by the Islamic State. 12 January 2022.
After the withdrawal of US and allied forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban returned to power. In response, other nations stopped providing foreign aid and froze billions of dollars of government reserves deposited abroad. Intense droughts in 2022 exacerbated the economic crisis; currently half of the country’s population do not have enough to eat and over a million children are severely malnourished according to the UN. This story captures the many difficulties Afghan people face in their daily lives.
World Press Photo 2023: Europe Long-Term Projects regional winner
Net-Zero Transition by Simone Tramonte
Net-Zero Transition. People swim at Amager Strand, Denmark, on 13 July 2021, near a wind farm which is co-owned by 8.552 electricity consumers, and serves more than 40,000 Copenhagen households. © Simone Tramonte.
Renewable energies, new technologies for food production, and the circular economy can be seen as key directions among European companies seeking a green transition. Human-induced climate change is the largest, most pervasive threat to the natural environment and society that the world has ever experienced, according to the OCHR. This prompted the European Union to establish targets to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 and to reduce them to net-zero by 2050. The photographer documents innovative technologies that offer possible routes to these goals.
World Press Photo 2023: North and Central America Open Format regional winner
The Voice of New York is Drill by Ashley Peña for New York Magazine
The Voice of New York Is Drill. Kenzo B (18) is one of the few young up-and-coming women artists in the Brooklyn drill scene. Although there have been a number of women artists, drill artists have been predominantly men. The Bronx, New York, on 4 August 2022. © Ashley Peña, United States, for New York Magazine
Drill, a musical genre that originated in Chicago, United States, may be the most recent wave of rap music to achieve massive global success, but its story is not new to hip-hop. Even as their hit songs top charts, New York drill artists are targeted by New York City Police Department (NYPD) investigators who comb their lyrics and music videos for evidence of gang-related crimes. Concerts are shut down and artists face indictments, all while success brings rivalry and jealousy among peers out on the streets. This series offers an intimate look at several members of this new generation of young men and women drill artists striving to realize their dreams.
World Press Photo 2023: South America Long-Term Project regional winner
I Can’t Hear the Birds by Fabiola Ferrero
I Can’t Hear the Birds. Massive deforestation is evident in Apuí, a municipality along the Trans-Amazonian Highway, southern Amazon, Brazil, on 24 August 2020. Apuí is one of the region’s most deforested municipalities. © Fabiola Ferrero
Seven million Venezuelans have left their country to live abroad, driven by economic collapse, political unrest, high unemployment, and extreme social inequality. Around the turn of the millennium, oil-rich Venezuela was prosperous, but its fortunes declined following plummeting oil prices, later economic mismanagement, and political instability. Young people, especially, began to leave. The photographer was one, but she returns to search for traces of the Venezuela of her memory. Her project combines images of migration and past political violence with those of present-day Venezuela, of the decay and the resilience of people living within it.
World Press Photo 2023: Africa Singles regional winner
The Big Forget by Lee-Ann Olwage, Bob & Diane Fund, for Der Spiegel
The Big Forget. Sugri Zenabu, a mangazia (female community leader) of the Gambaga “witch camp”, sits encircled by residents in Gambaga, Ghana, on 27 October 2022. Zenabu shows some signs of confusion and memory loss associated with dementia. © Lee-Ann Olwage, Bob & Diane Fund, for Der Spiegel.
As life expectancy rises, dementia is increasingly becoming a public health and socio-cultural issue in Ghana and across Africa. Lack of public awareness of behavior associated with the condition means that women displaying symptoms are sometimes perceived as witches. In Ghana, they may be sent away to live in so-called “witch camps”. Lee-Ann Olwage’s personal project attempts to bring attention to often overlooked stories about dementia from the African continent.
World Press Photo 2023: Southeast Asia and Oceania Open Format regional winner
Australian Floods in Infrared by Chad Ajamian
Australian Floods in Infrared. Flooding along the Hawkesbury River, a major waterway that encircles the Sydney metropolitan region, on 31 March 2022. The flood level reached an average of more than 13 meters and was the catchment’s wettest 9-day period since records began. © Chad Ajamian
This series offers a unique perspective on the recent floods that have devastated areas in New South Wales, Australia. Aerial infrared imaging renders vegetation in pinks and reds, contrasting sharply against blues and cyans, which represent water. These images make newly flooded areas easily discernible to post-disaster emergency responders, assisting with response and recovery. The photos in this series were taken during the rounds of devastating floods in New South Wales, Australia, which forced the evacuation of 18,000 people in March 2021. The increased intensity and frequency of flooding in the region is likely an outcome of the global climate crisis.
The project contains adaptations from raw data in NSW Flood Imagery Viewer by DCS Spatial Services, State of New South Wales, licenced under CC BY 4.
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