World Press Photo Awards 2026

The Cost of the Moment: The Fourth Estate, Institutional Silence, and the

 World Press Photo Archive

By Marlene Rose Fedi

The Cost of the Frame
CosmoDus Editor-in-Chief Marlene Rose Fedi with Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands on the occasion of the World Press Photo award ceremony at De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. (Photo: Frank van Beek)

The Cost of the Moment: The Fourth Estate, Institutional Silence, and the World Press Photo Archive

When the invitation from the World Press Photo Foundation reached the editorial office in May 2026, it marked a departure toward the documented extremes of our contemporary world. The journey to Amsterdam for the official opening of the global annual exhibition was a deliberate effort to editorially confront the uncensored fault lines of global politics. The following report captures the unvarnished impressions on-site—from the conversations with Prince Constantijn beneath the church vaults to the moving meeting with laureate Carol Guzy, extending to the silent confrontation within the Memorial Room inscribed with the names of fallen journalists, and the unmistakable absence of the photographers from the Gaza Strip.

Amsterdam — De Nieuwe Kerk

Anyone entering De Nieuwe Kerk in the center of Amsterdam steps into a palpable silence. Once again this year, the historic nave was transformed for the presentation of the World Press Photo Awards into a walkable archive of our contemporary history. Suspended between the high stone pillars are the uncensored testimonies of the present—images that demand the unbribable eye of a free press. Here, it becomes evident that photojournalism remains a moral authority as the Fourth Estate. It looks precisely where political discourse turns away, holding the actors accountable.

Prince Constantijns presence beneath the vaults lends the awards a decisive societal weight

In times of global crisis, this independence requires protective spaces. This became clear during the formal ceremony as Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury positioned the Foundation as a guardian of free expression. Since 2008, Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands has supported the foundation as its official patron. His presence beneath the vaults lends the awards a decisive societal weight. In a brief professional exchange on the margins of the festivities, it became clear how essential it is to defend this international forum for evidence from the frontlines, and that institutional responsibility and independent publishing speak the exact same language here.

Beyond the formal protocols, the true center of gravity of the evening remained the power of photography itself. Each laureate was presented on stage alongside their work—a moment that directly linked the face of the witness to the documented reality. Standing above all this year was the work of Carol Guzy: "Separated by ICE." The Image of the Year dominated the space as a monumental visual testament.

Guzy’s lens captures a reality that unfolded inside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York—one of the few US federal facilities where media access was granted at all. The photograph documents the exact moment when Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant with no criminal record and his family's sole provider, is detained by immigration enforcement agents immediately following a routine court hearing. Left behind in the corridor are his wife, Cocha, and their three children aged seven, 13, and 15. The image stands as a mirror to the human consequences of a purely administrative policy. Following the presentations, I had the opportunity to meet Carol Guzy personally. The image had moved me deeply, and our exchange culminated in a warm embrace—a moment that bridged journalistic duty with the very empathy that forms the foundation of documenting history.

Those who move further into the interior of the church experience a altered atmosphere. In collaboration with international protective organizations, a silent room of remembrance was created: the Memorial for Journalists. On a simple wall, there are no photographs, no biographies. It is a registry engraved exclusively with names and the respective year of death. The inscriptions from the year 2023 marked a bloody turning point in global journalism, registering historic highs in the deliberate targeting of reporters. This trajectory continues unabated through the entries for 2024 and 2025. To stand before this wall means to look directly at the cost of facts. When human lives are reduced to an engraving in stone, it exposes the systemic failure of international protective frameworks.

The complete physical absence of the finalists from the Gaza Strip

This exposure is visualized in the room by an installation: a blue "PRESS" protective vest mounted onto a faceless figure, positioned like a historical suit of armor. Yet this armor no longer protects on the frontlines—instead, it has increasingly become a specific target for snipers and drones.

This permanent threat also explains the deepest silence of this ceremony: the complete physical absence of the finalists from the Gaza Strip. Just as in previous years of heightened regional conflict, it was physically impossible for these journalists to leave the military blockades to receive their international honors on stage in Amsterdam. Their empty chairs in the hall of De Nieuwe Kerk served as an unyielding monument. The blockades that these individuals risk their lives to document daily have become the impassable walls restricting their personal freedom.

The juxtaposition inside De Nieuwe Kerk remains absolute: the empty chairs of the living, the engraved names of the fallen, and the abandoned press vest standing in the dim light define the true weight of the visual archive. The Fourth Estate is not a tool for casual self-marketing. It is a ledger written in facts and stone, maintained by individuals who force the world to look, even when the price for that single moment is survival itself.

By Marlene Rose Eugenia Fedi

World Press Photo of the Year 2026, CosmoDus Editor-in-chief Marlene Rose Fedi

World Press Photo of the Year 2026 Presentation: Photojournalists and representatives gathering on stage at De Nieuwe Kerk, showcasing the global finalists and the winning image "Separated by ICE" by Carol Guzy. (Photo: Marlene Rose Fedi)

The Grand Stage at De Nieuwe Kerk: The setting for the official World Press Photo Awards Ceremony, backdropped by the magnificent historic organ in Amsterdam. (Photo: Marlene Rose Fedi)

2026 World Press Photo Contest Winners

The global winners gathering on stage during the official award ceremony at De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. (Photo: Marlene Rose Fedi)

Honoring the Brave

Protective press gear on display at De Nieuwe Kerk, surrounded by the names of journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty. (Photo: Marlene Rose Fedi)

Photo of the Year and Finalists
WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR

Separated by ICE

© Carol Guzy, ZUMA Press, iWitness, for Miami Herald

“Please understand we are coming here for a better opportunity, not just for ourselves, but for our children,” said Cocha, after her husband, Luis, was detained by ICE agents following an immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant whom his family says has no criminal record, served as the household’s sole provider. This photograph, taken inside one of the few US federal buildings where photographers were granted access, captures a harrowing moment: a family separated by the state. What Carol Guzy has documented is not an isolated instance, but a policy indiscriminately applied to people who arrive for hearings in good faith. Cocha and their three children – ages seven, 13, and 15 – were left inconsolable, facing immediate financial hardship and profound emotional trauma. In a democracy, the camera’s presence in that hallway is an essential witness to a policy that has turned courthouses into sites of shattered lives.

Story:
In 2025, shifts in US immigration policy transformed courthouses into focal points for mass deportation efforts by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Masked ICE agents detained undocumented migrants immediately following their hearings, often leading to deeply traumatic family separations. These aggressive tactics, coupled with severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the 10th-floor holding facility in the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York, prompted fierce public protests, class-action lawsuits, and the arrest of local elected officials demanding accountability.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

© Saber Nuraldin, EPA Images

Palestinians climb onto an aid truck as it enters the Gaza Strip via the Zikim Crossing in an attempt to get flour, during what the Israeli military called a “tactical suspension” in operations to allow humanitarian aid through. 27 July 2025.

Story:
In 2025, famine took hold amid what an independent UN Human Rights Commission inquiry has concluded is a genocide in Gaza. Israel disputes this.

Israeli authorities imposed a complete aid blockade in March, a tactic described by humanitarian organizations as the weaponization of starvation. When international pressure led to a partial reopening of crossings in May, most deliveries went through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), established by the US and Israel to bypass the UN-led aid system. Its operation, which put military personnel in charge, was widely condemned by global human rights and legal organizations as unethical and in violation of international law. The UN reports that between late May and early October, at least 2,435 Palestinians were killed seeking food at or near GHF collection points.

The GHF shut down when a fragile ceasefire went into effect in October. Despite some aid entering Gaza, more than 75% of the population still faced hunger and malnutrition in December. The photographer was born in Gaza and has documented life there since 1997.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO WINNERS

Witnessing Gaza

© Saher Alghorra, for The New York Times

Caption:
Tamer Hassan al-Shafei and his family break their Ramadan fast in the remains of their home. Food shortages meant only basics were served instead of the usual spread. Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, 4 March 2025.

Story:
In 2025, civilians in Gaza endured starvation, famine, and relentless bombardment as the death toll surpassed 75,000 and Israeli authorities severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid. A ceasefire agreement in October has yet to bring meaningful relief. Palestinian journalists – living through the reality they document – are the world’s few witnesses to what a UN Commission has concluded is a genocide. Israel disputes this. The photographer worked under immense danger, driven by a refusal to let the world turn away. “Even when everything around me told me to stop, I couldn't – silence would mean surrender.”

Witnessing Gaza

© Saher Alghorra, for The New York Times

Caption:
The Mushtaha Tower collapses in a military strike, amid hundreds of makeshift tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, as Israel’s offensive on Gaza City intensified. Gaza Strip, 5 September 2025.

A Long Tradition

The foundations of today's visual reporting were laid in 1955 in the Netherlands. A group of Dutch press photographers had the vision at that time to transform the existing national competition "Zilveren Camera" into a global platform. The goal was to bring local image-makers directly into contact with the work of international colleagues and to establish universal quality standards in photojournalism. Today, the World Press Photo Foundation is regarded as the world's most prestigious awarding body for documentary photography. The organization has developed over the decades into more than a pure prize jury; it seems to be an educational initiative. Since 1990, the foundation has organized international seminars, and the well-known Joop Swart Masterclass has served since 1994 as a springboard for young journalistic talent. In addition, the award-winning photo series are shown annually in traveling exhibitions worldwide. According to its own statements, the foundation is non-profit. Since 2008, the foundation has stood under the official patronage of Prince Constantijn of Orange-Nassau, the youngest brother of the Dutch king. His patronage lends the annual awards in the Amsterdam cultural center De Nieuwe Kerk a diplomatic and social weight. In times of digital image manipulation, disinformation, and restrictions on media freedom, one might call the archive of the foundation an unbribable witness to world history.

The Bureaucracy of Separation: The Press Photo of the Year

The global winning photo by US photographer Carol Guzy leads directly into the emotional center of state measures. Published in the Miami Herald, the image "Separated by ICE" documents a deeply painful moment in the New York courthouse: desperate daughters cling to their father Luis from Ecuador, while masked immigration officers lead him away immediately after a hearing. The contribution deliberately avoids any domestic political commentary on the migration debate. Instead, the fourth estate uses the camera as a neutral but relentless tool to make visible the immediate emotional impact that arises when families are torn apart by administrative processes. It is the testimony of a purely human tragedy in the grip of state infrastructures.

The Testimony of Gaza: Hunger as a Documented Reality

The most dramatic and serious focus of this year's selection is formed by the award-winning works from the Gaza Strip, above all the finalist image by Saber Nuraldin. His work "Aid Emergency in Gaza," distributed through the agency EPA Images, shows the catastrophic humanitarian situation at the Zikim border crossing, where desperate people crowd onto a rescue truck to receive flour. Here, photography becomes the irrefutable evidence of a documented crisis. The visual reports reflect the hard data of international organizations. According to the report of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, around 1.6 million people in the Gaza Strip – more than 75 percent of the population – continue to be affected by acute food insecurity at crisis level. The UN and the World Food Programme predict that well into the year 2026, at least 132,000 children under the age of five as well as tens of thousands of pregnant and breastfeeding women will suffer from acute malnutrition and urgently require medical treatment. The images by Nuraldin and Saher Alghorra break the political silence. They show that hunger in the conflict zone is not an abstract statistic, but a physical, life-threatening reality that must be captured uncensored by the fourth estate.

The Technological Trench Warfare: The Reality in Ukraine

The transformation of modern warfare by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Technological change has turned large parts of the country into deadly zones, in which commercial hobby drones are allegedly repurposed into remote-controlled weapons and mass-produced First-Person-View (FPV) drones are piloted with deadly precision from kilometers away. This arms race would force soldiers to spend most of their time in underground bunkers and basements, cut off from resupply lines and medical evacuations.

At the same time, the harshness of these attacks hits the civilian population. A photo from this series shows Yulia Vasiakina, who on July 11, 2025, in Odesa embraces her 20-year-old horse Kamelia, which was killed when Russian long-range drones struck their residential neighborhood and destroyed an entire city block. Opposing this is the civilian mobilization in the hinterland: masked Ukrainian civilians assemble FPV drones in an underground basement factory in central Ukraine on September 6, 2024, while both warring parties now produce millions of these weapons per year.

Institutional Crossfire: The University Protests in North America

In North America, the fourth estate directs its gaze to the field of tension between free speech and state intervention at academic institutions. Many US universities fell under political pressure to curb pro-Palestinian demonstrations, thus becoming the scene of a national conflict over the independence of educational institutions. The administrative crisis escalated when federal funds amounting to 400 million dollars were allegedly frozen by government agencies to force a crackdown on campus protests at Columbia University.

The most striking image of this conflict comes from photographer Alex Kent for The New York Times. It documents the arrest of Barnard College alumna Jesse Pearce outside the gates of Columbia University's official commencement ceremony on May 21, 2025. Together with students, she demonstrated against the university's ongoing financial ties to Israel. The image captures the physical harshness of state arrests in handcuffs and shows a generation demanding its rights to free speech.

The Merciless Backdrop: The Palisades Fire in California

Embedded in this global crisis year, the fourth estate documents that natural disasters represent immediate existential threats to urban living spaces. A powerful shot captures how the devastating "Palisades Fire" on January 7, 2025, under the influence of high winds, ravages a residential neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. The image transports not only the physical devastation but stands for an unprecedented economic crisis: the blazes in Los Angeles inflicted an estimated 28 to 53.8 billion dollars in property damage and destroyed the livelihood of thousands of local businesses. The camera no longer shows nature as a distant theater, but as an unleashed force that directly attacks infrastructures and...

The Responsibility of the Gaze

When politics looks away, these images force us to look. They do not pass legal judgments, but they preserve the suffering of the victims from being forgotten and call upon the global community not to close its eyes to reality.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO WINNERS

Drone Wars

© David Guttenfelder, The New York Times

Story:
Ukraine’s battle against the Russian invasion is reshaping modern combat. Hobby drones are being repurposed into remote-controlled weapons, and mass-produced first-person-view (FPV) drones are piloted from kilometers away with deadly precision. These developments have triggered an unrelenting drone arms race and turned vast areas of Ukraine into “kill zones”. Civilians are targeted and displaced, and soldiers spend most of their time in underground bunkers or basements, unable to be resupplied or casualty-evacuated. This story documents Ukraine's efforts to advance its drone capabilities, and the impact of Russian drone attacks on civilians.

Ukrainian civilians, their identities concealed behind masks, assemble FPV drones in a basement factory. Both Ukraine and Russia now manufacture millions of battlefield drones a year. Central Ukraine, 6 September 2024.

NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
SINGLES

Columbia University Pro-Palestine Protests

© Alex Kent, for The New York Times

Barnard College alumna Jesse Pearce is arrested outside Columbia University’s commencement ceremony. Along with current students, alumni protested the institution’s ongoing financial ties to Israel. New York City, New York, United States, 21 May 2025.

Story:
Facing intense political pressure to limit pro-Palestine demonstrations, many US universities became focal points in a national conflict over free speech and institutional independence. At Columbia University, the Trump administration suspended $400 million in federal funding to force a crackdown on campus protests, causing severe administrative upheaval. The students were caught in this institutional crossfire, but many members of the graduating class of 2025 as well as alumni chose to exercise their first amendment rights in protests and demonstrations.

WEST, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH ASIA
SINGLES

Fire and smoke engulf Singha Durbar after protesters stormed and set the government complex alight during violent demonstrations. Kathmandu, Nepal, 9 September 2025.

Story:
A government ban of 26 social media platforms on 4 September 2025 was the breaking point for Nepal’s youth. On 8 September, thousands took to the streets, part of a generation of young people around the world refusing to accept systems that perpetuate corruption, unemployment, and economic hardship. Within two days, 76 people were dead, most of them young demonstrators killed by police. Thousands more were injured. On 9 September, following Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation, protesters stormed and set fire to Singha Durbar, the historic complex at the heart of Nepal’s government.