The World Press Photo Foundation has revealed the winners of its 2025 contest, continuing a tradition that has shaped photojournalism since 1955. The announcement, reported by the BBC, names the photographers whose work the jury judged the strongest from this year's entries.

The reveal is the outcome of a months-long selection process. The foundation's juries review thousands of submissions across regional and global rounds before settling on the final honourees. Each year the contest recognises work in categories that include singles, stories, long-term projects and open format.

What does the win mean for the photographers?

A World Press Photo award remains one of the most visible distinctions in the field. It places winners in travelling exhibitions that reach audiences across multiple continents, and it secures their work a permanent place in the annual World Press Photo yearbook. The honour also tends to shape editorial agendas, because news desks and picture editors watch the results closely.

The foundation itself has changed in recent years. It reorganised the contest around regional juries, a move designed to widen which stories and which parts of the world reach the final stage. That structural shift now frames how each year's winners are chosen and debated.

Why this announcement matters beyond the winners

The contest functions as an annual audit of photojournalism. The images that rise to the top tell us what the jury, and by extension the industry, considered the defining visual record of the previous twelve months. Winners have historically gone on to feature in museum exhibitions and monographs, and their series often enter the broader history of documentary photography.

The BBC's coverage of the 2025 results points to continuing public appetite for this kind of recognition. Interest in the contest extends well beyond the photography world, into general news audiences.

The foundation will now take the winning works on its annual worldwide exhibition tour, with the Amsterdam premiere traditionally opening the circuit. The travelling show, and the accompanying yearbook, will carry the 2025 winners' photographs to viewers through the coming year.

By Grace Kim