The World Press Photo Exhibition is coming to Sligo, bringing the annual competition's award-winning photojournalism to the northwest of Ireland.

The announcement, reported by Ocean FM, confirms Sligo as a stop on the exhibition's international tour — the travelling display that each year carries the winners of the World Press Photo contest, the Amsterdam-based foundation's annual awards for press photography, to venues across dozens of countries.

What is the World Press Photo Exhibition?

World Press Photo, founded in 1955, runs the most widely recognised competition in press photography. Each year an international jury honours single images and multimedia works across categories including Spot News, General News, Long-Term Projects and Photojournalist of the Year.

The winning entries then form a touring exhibition that has become an institution in its own right — a yearly snapshot, assembled from the work of photographers working in conflict zones, newsrooms and long-form documentary projects around the globe.

The show's arrival in Sligo gives audiences in the west of Ireland direct access to images that in previous editions have documented war, displacement, climate disruption and political upheaval — the frames that shaped a year of global news consumption.

Why Sligo?

The touring exhibition regularly reaches Irish venues beyond the capital, and the Ocean FM report places Sligo on the current itinerary. Regional stops of this kind are central to the foundation's stated mission: bringing photojournalism of record to audiences far from the major metropolitan centres where such work is usually exhibited.

No specific venue, opening date or curator details were included in the announcement as reported. Local audiences will need to confirm exhibition dates and admission arrangements through Sligo venues and event listings as the opening approaches.

What visitors can expect

Based on the exhibition's established format, visitors to the Sligo showing can expect large-format prints of the contest's winning and honoured photographs, each accompanied by caption material describing the story, the photographer and the circumstances in which the picture was made — the standard presentation of the World Press Photo tour.

The exhibition's arrival continues a pattern of internationally significant photography exhibitions reaching regional Irish venues, and Sligo's place on the map for this year's tour signals where the foundation's travelling programme is heading next.