World Press Photo announces global winners for 2023

21 April 2023

Evgeniy Maloletka of the Associated Press has won the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year for his photograph Mariupol Maternity Hospital Airstrike, a harrowing image depicting a pregnant woman being evacuated following a Russian airstrike.

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. Image: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Maloletka was one of the very few photographers in Mariupol in early March 2022. “We came to Mariupol just one before the invasion. For 20 days, we lived with paramedics in the basement of the hospital, and in shelters with ordinary citizens, trying to show the fear Ukrainians were living in,” says Maloletka.

“This is the image that I wanted to forget, but I couldn’t,” he explains.

Of Maloletka’s image, Jury Chair Brent Lewis says the haunting image was unanimously chosen.

“With the vote being decided on the first anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the jury mentioned the power of the image and the story behind it, as well as the atrocities it shows," he said.

"The death of both the pregnant woman and her child summarized so much of the war, as well as the possible intent of Russia. As one juror put it: ‘It’s like they are trying to kill the future of Ukraine.”

This year's winners were chosen from more than 60,000 entries (still images and multimedia) submitted by 3,752 entrants from 127 countries.

As with the regional winners announced earlier this month, the entries were judged first by six regional juries, with winners chosen by a global jury consisting of the regional jury chairs plus the global jury chair.

The World Press Photo Contest rewards the best visual journalism of the past year. Each global winner receives €5,000.

Asia, Stories. Unable to afford food for the family, the parents of Khalil Ahmad (15) decided to sell his kidney for US$3,500. The lack of jobs and the threat of starvation has led to a dramatic increase in the illegal organ trade. Herat, Afghanistan, 19 January 2022. © Mads Nissen, Politiken/Panos Pictures — Story of the Year winner, *The Price of Peace in Afghanistan.* Unable to afford food for the family, the parents of Khalil Ahmad (15) decided to sell his kidney for US$3,500. The lack of jobs and the threat of starvation has led to a dramatic increase in the illegal organ trade. Herat, Afghanistan, 19 January 2022. © Mads Nissen, Politiken/Panos Pictures

The Price of Peace in Afghanistan © Mads Nissen, Politiken/Panos Pictures

The World Press Photo Story of the Year was awarded to Mads Nissen of Politiken/Panos Pictures for his The Price of Peace in Afghanistan. Nissen is a previous winner of the Photo of the Year category in 2021.

His series depicts the daily lives of people in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power after the United States and its allies withdrew from the troubled Middle Eastern nation.

World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award: Battered Waters by Anush Babajanyan, Jaynagul Brjieva and her family enjoy an outing to a hot spring in Kaji-Say, Kyrgyzstan, on March 9, 2021. The waters are thought by some to have healing properties. Anush Babajanyan/VII Photo/National Geographic Society

Sonunbek Kadyrov pilots his water taxi, serving the village of Kyzyl-Beyit, Kyrgyzstan, on March 16, 2021. Local access to the main road was blocked by flooding during construction of the Toktogul Dam in the 1960s. Image: Anush Babajanyan, VII Photo/National Geographic Society

The World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award was awarded to Anush Babajanyan VII Photo/National Geographic Society for Battered Waters, her coverage of water management and its impact on Central Asia.

Babajanyan has spent years documenting the water resource interdependence of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. After years of peaceful cooperation between the four landlocked nations, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers have recently become a source of conflict in the face of drought, changing needs, and water mismanagement.

Africa, Open format. This web-based project explores the effects of rising seas on the local community in Al Max, a fishing village situated along the Mahmoudiyah canal in Alexandria, Egypt. © Mohamed Mahdy

The Open Format Award was awarded to Mohamed Mahdy, for his series Here, The Doors Don’t Know Me, a series which explores how rising sea levels affect Al Max, a fishing village along the Mahmoudiyah canal in Alexandria, Egypt.

All the winning images will now tour the world in the foundation’s annual exhibition to more than 60 cities around the world including Sydney, from next month.

You can see a wrap-up of the Regional winners here.