World Press Photo 2026: 42 winners on show in Oeiras

By Marcus Bennett

World Press Photo 2026 opens on October 23 with 42 winning works selected from more than 57,000 photographs submitted by photographers in 141 countries.

The free exhibition occupies an open space at Alameda Almeida Garrett in Parque dos Poetas, Oeiras, and runs through November 22. Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

World Press Photo counts among the most internationally recognised photojournalism exhibitions. Its 2026 winners address conflicts, humanitarian crises, climate change and social inequalities, alongside stories of resilience and triumph. The setting gives that programme a civic reach: a major exhibition of documentary photography sits within a public park rather than a conventional gallery.

The photograph that won the year

The 2026 Photo of the Year, announced on April 23, 2026, is “Separated by ICE” by Carol Guzy (ZUMA Press, iWitness, for the Miami Herald). Guzy took the picture in a hallway of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York, one of the few US federal buildings where photographers have been granted access.

It records an arrest by officers of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant, was detained by ICE agents after an immigration court hearing on August 26, 2025. His family says he has no criminal record and was the sole breadwinner for his household.

In the frame, Luis’s daughters cling to his shirt as officers arrest him. Cocha and her three children, aged 7, 13 and 15, were inconsolable. The family faces immediate financial difficulties and severe emotional trauma.

The federal building does more than locate the scene. It places the family’s distress inside the physical structure of immigration enforcement, while Guzy’s access supplies the photograph with documentary weight. Her timing matters too: the image joins a child’s grip on a parent’s shirt to the legal machinery of detention in one decisive instant.

Within press photography, that combination of institutional access and human immediacy gives a picture its force. It offers evidence of a public act and of its private consequences without leaving the federal corridor for explanation or spectacle. The result is an image whose argument rests on what it witnessed.

A wider selection, unevenly described

Beyond the top prize, the 42 works span conflicts, humanitarian crises, climate change and social inequalities. The programme also includes stories of resilience and triumph, so the exhibition’s remit extends beyond disaster.

The park presentation allows visitors to encounter the works one at a time, rather than as a single wall of images. The published account, however, centres on Guzy’s award: it does not identify the photographers or subjects of the other 41 prizewinning works. That is a substantial omission in the available information. It also leaves the breadth of the selection to be judged from the photographs themselves.

The distinction matters. An exhibition can have a forceful central image and a wider argument, but the first cannot substitute for the range of reporting represented by the rest of the selection. The figures establish that scale: more than 57,000 photographs from 141 countries, distilled into 42 works for public display.

What does free admission change for visitors?

It removes the ticket barrier and puts an internationally recognised photojournalism exhibition within an ordinary trip to a park. Visitors can walk from one photograph to the next at their own pace, with the organisers explicitly inviting them to take their time.

Entrance remains free throughout the run. The exhibition’s daily schedule from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. also makes a return visit straightforward, while the open-air layout allows each work to be approached individually.

That practical openness carries editorial weight. A difficult body of work is not confined to a ticketed room; it meets visitors in a shared public space. Ease of access, though, cannot substitute for the quality of the reporting.

Through November 22, the test for the other 41 winners is whether they can sustain the specificity of Guzy’s image and make the exhibition’s stated concerns visible at the same level. The park will provide the access; the reporting will have to provide the reasons to look.