Last chance for Sydneysiders to see 2023 World Press Photo exhibition

The World Press Photo Exhibition is set to return to its only Sydney venue, the State Library of NSW, from this Saturday 12 August.

It will be the last chance for Australian audiences to see the popular exhibition locally.

The World Press Photo Contest recognises outstanding photojournalism that best captures many of the most pressing issues facing the world today, from the climate crisis to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Flooding along the Hawkesbury River, a major waterway that encircles the Sydney metropolitan region, on 31 March 2022. The flood level reached an average of more than 13 meters and was the catchment's wettest 9-day period since records began. © Chad Ajamian

Australian photographer and scientist Chad Ajamian was among this year’s winners — his evocative ‘Australian Floods in Infrared’ series won the 2023 Photo Contest, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Open Format.

The Australian winner features alongside the other international winners of the 66th annual World Press Photo Contest, chosen from more than 60,448 photographs entered by 3,752 photographers, across 127 countries.

Iryna Kalinina, an injured pregnant woman, is carried from a maternity hospital that was damaged during a Russian air strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9, 2022. Her baby, named Miron (after the word for "peace"), was stillborn, and half an hour later Iryna died as well.

This year, the coveted Photo of the Year went to Evgeniy Maloletka for his confronting image of Iryna Kalinina, an injured 32-year-old pregnant woman being carried from a maternity hospital damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine. Neither Iryna nor her unborn child survived.

The exhibition runs at the State Library of NSW, 1 Shakespeare Place Sydney, from 12 August to 10 September 2023. Entry is free.