Photographers Can Win Practically $13,000 and a Fujifilm GFX Package in World Press Photo Contest 2026

The deadline to enter the annual 2026 World Press Photo Contest is shortly approaching. Photographers have till January 17 to submit their photographs.

Photographers worldwide can enter a number of classes, together with Singles, Stories, and Long Term Projects. The Singles class pits single body images shot in 2025 towards one another, whereas photographers coming into the Stories class should submit between 4 and 10 single body photos, at the very least 4 of which had been shot in 2025. The ultimate class, Long Term Projects, requires between 24 and 30 single body photos spanning at the very least three totally different years, however at the very least six frames needed to have been captured in 2025. All images shot in 2025 throughout all three classes are eligible to be named the World Press Photo of the Year.

Category winners every obtain €1,000, inclusion within the year-long annual World Press Photo exhibition, inclusion within the annual World Press Photo Contest yearbook, an invite to the winner’s occasion in Amsterdam, and a bodily award. The World Press Photo of the Year winner will even obtain an extra €10,000 prize and a Fujifilm GFX digital camera and lens package. Two runners-up will even get a Fujifilm GFX package.

Although the World Press Photo Contest is a world affair, it’s price noting that the competitors has a regional mannequin. There are six impartial regional juries, every made up of execs from that space. These regional juries are higher in a position to consider entries within the applicable cultural, political, and social context, the competitors explains. This yr’s regional jury chairs are Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Silvia Omedes, Marie Monteleone, Gael Almeida, and Gabrielle Fonseca Johnson.

The world jury chair is inventive director and photograph editor Kira Pollack. Pollack is at the moment a 2025 Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow on the Harvard Kennedy School and not too long ago concluded a fellowship at USC’s Starling Lab, the place Pollack led a undertaking to use archival requirements and protocols to protect photojournalism collections. Pollack defined her analysis in a superb piece for The Washington Post final yr, “Photos Are Disappearing, One Archive at a Time.” Pollack can be recognized for her TED Talk, “What Makes a Photograph Influential.”

“At a time when truth feels increasingly fragile and contested, visual journalism stands as one of our most powerful tools for bearing witness and creating understanding. Photography has a unique ability to transcend language and borders, to shift perspectives, and to move policymakers and public alike toward action. The work of photojournalists around the world — often done at great personal risk — has never been more vital to our collective understanding of reality,” Pollack says.

“I’m honored to serve as Global Jury Chair for the 2026 World Press Photo Contest, and I look forward to engaging with the exceptional work submitted from every corner of the globe, and to the thoughtful conversations with our distinguished jury members as we recognize the photographers who are shaping how we see and comprehend our world.”

The 2026 World Press Photo Contest is open for entry now till January 17, 2026. Complete guidelines and laws are detailed on the competition’s website. Photographers eager for inspiration ought to try final yr’s profitable photographs.

Image credit: World Press Photo. Featured photograph by Jérôme Brouillet / AFP