2026 World Press Photo Contest Announces Winners Highlighting Global Issues

The 2026 World Press Photo Contest has revealed its winning images, which document events and conditions from the past year across multiple regions. The photo of the year captures the pain of a family being separated in a New York court.

and South America One winning image depicts young dancers from the Joburg Ballet School preparing for a year-end performance at the Soweto Theatre in Soweto, South Africa, on December 7, 2025. The photographer, based in Johannesburg, stated that he attended the event where young students showcase their ballet skills to an audience of parents, friends, and family.

In Zimbabwe, a photo shows professional hunters culling a family of elephants at the Sango Wildlife Conservancy in the Savé Valley Conservancy on October 23, 2025. The photographer reported that the cull was part of an effort to manage elephant populations following reports of clashes between humans and animals.

He noted that the government planned to cull 600 elephants, and participants in the cull took steps to complete the task quickly. A winning photo from South America, taken on September 10, 2025, in Los Patios, Norte de Santander, Colombia, shows a 5-year-old girl named Valeria playing behind a curtain at her aunt's house.

The photographer stated that the image relates to single-mother households in the region, where nearly a third of households are headed exclusively by women. He mentioned that his own father was killed in 1999 in the same border region. This settlement houses 200 families without official access to water, sewage, or electricity.