World Press Photo 2022

The 2022 World Press Photo Contest will open on Wednesday, 1 December 2021. Entries can be submitted until 11 January 2022. Entering the 2022 World Press Photo Contest is free and open to all photojournalists and/or documentary photographers.

New regional model The 2022 World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the past year.

As a step to improve representation from regions that have been historically underrepresented, this year the contest format will be different, shifting to a new regional contest model focusing on six regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia and Oceania. This new model will offer both regional and global awards.

The contest is judged independently by leaders in documentary photography and photojournalism. The regional and global jury will be announced in December 2021.

A selection of entries per category will be chosen by each regional jury. Once the regional juries have made their selection, a global jury (made up of the regional jury chairs plus one additional member) will decide on the regional winners and from those, the global winners.

The work of winners will be:
Included in the World Press Photo annual travelling exhibition, shown around the world
Published on the World Press Photo website and social platforms with over 2 million followers
Included in the World Press Photo yearbook

Winners also receive: €5,000 for global winners and/in addition to €1,000 for regional winners
An invitation to a winners event
A physical award

Format-based categories:
This year entrants can submit their work to four format-based categories:
Singles: single exposure photographs;
Stories: a story made up of 3-10 single frame photographs;
Long-Term Projects: projects on a single theme containing between 24-30 single frame photographs;

Open Format: a new category that welcomes a range and/or mixture of storytelling mediums in which the main visual content is still photography. Entries can include but are not limited to: polyptychs; multiple exposure images; stitched panoramas; photographic collages; interactive documentaries; short documentary videos.

These categories welcome entries that document news moments, events and aftermaths, as well as social, political and environmental issues or solutions.