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A polar bear on a whale. Socializing with a robot. These photos create a “portrait of our world"
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When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Photographs tell stories that cross language barriers – and the 2026 World Press Photo Contest winners tell the stories of conflict and crisis as well as resistance and resilience. World Press Photo has announced the winners for the 2026 competition, which recognizes some of the most striking photographs across photojournalism and documentary photography. The contest recognizes photographers across single images, multi-photo stories, and long-term projects across six regions. The resulting gallery is a collection of more than 100 winning images that create, as the contest organizers describe it, “an urgent portrait of our world today.” World Press Photo will select one Photo of the Year and two finalists from among the award winners on April 23. “This is a critical moment – for democracy, for truth, for the question of what we as a society are willing to see and call out what we are willing to ignore,” said the contest’s global jury chair for 2026 and Harvard Shorenstein Center fellow Kira Pollack. “The photographers recognized here have done their part. They have made their record. Now it is our turn to look.” Nearly 3,750 photographers from 141 countries submitted entries to the contests, totalling more than 57,000 photographs. As a photographer, I’m always awed at the power of photographs to tell stories without words. But the winning images from the 2026 contest tell not just the stories of the world, but the stories of the photographers who persevered through challenging environments. One photographer watched a polar bear atop a dead sperm whale for two days from a boat. Another has been documenting how war, extremism, and displacement have been denying children the right to education across multiple countries since 2011. These are some of the most striking images – and stories – from the World Press Photo Contest 2026… Find the full gallery of winning images at World Press Photo. Take a look at the best professional cameras.