The deadline to enter the annual 2026 World Press Photo Contest is quickly approaching. Photographers have until January 17 to submit their photos.
Photographers worldwide can enter multiple categories, including Singles, Stories, and Long Term Projects. The Singles category pits single frame photographs shot in 2025 against each other, while photographers entering the Stories category must submit between four and 10 single frame images, at least four of which were shot in 2025. The final category, Long Term Projects, requires between 24 and 30 single frame images spanning at least three different years, but at least six frames had to have been captured in 2025. All photographs shot in 2025 across all three categories are eligible to be named the World Press Photo of the Year.
Category winners each receive €1,000, inclusion in the year-long annual World Press Photo exhibition, inclusion in the annual World Press Photo Contest yearbook, an invitation to the winner’s event in Amsterdam, and a physical award. The World Press Photo of the Year winner will also receive an additional €10,000 prize and a Fujifilm GFX camera and lens kit. Two runners-up will also get a Fujifilm GFX kit.
Although the World Press Photo Contest is an international affair, it is worth noting that the competition has a regional model. There are six independent regional juries, each made up of professionals from that area. These regional juries are better able to evaluate entries in the appropriate cultural, political, and social context, the competition explains. This year’s regional jury chairs are Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Silvia Omedes, Marie Monteleone, Gael Almeida, and Gabrielle Fonseca Johnson.
The global jury chair is creative director and photo editor Kira Pollack. Pollack is currently a 2025 Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and recently concluded a fellowship at USC’s Starling Lab, where Pollack led a project to apply archival standards and protocols to preserve photojournalism collections. Pollack explained her research in an excellent piece for The Washington Post last year, “Photos Are Disappearing, One Archive at a Time.” Pollack is also known 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 until January 17, 2026. Complete rules and regulations are detailed on the competition’s website. Photographers keen for inspiration should check out last year’s winning photos.
Image credits: World Press Photo. Featured photo by Jérôme Brouillet / AFP