The World Press Photo is known for organizing the largest and most prestigious annual press photography competition. For the eighteenth consecutive year, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation organizes the exhibition “World Press Photo 2022” at the Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. This event shows relevant pieces, mostly previously unpublished in Spain and tells important stories from all around the world. The portrayed work was ch
osen for their quality in visual and diversity.
Visitors are strolling through the exhibition
Overview of the event
The exhibition in Barcelona shows the winning photographs and multimedia pieces of the World Press Photo 2022 contest. Moreover, it shows all regional winners and four highlighted global winners. In addition, the winners were chosen by an independent jury that reviewed more than 64,820 photographs entered by 4,066 photographers from 130 countries.
Main themes of the event
The main themes of the event are indigenous communtites, traditional cultures, issues of identity, environmental crisis, wars and citizen protests. Moreover, this year the contest is structuring the world into six regions to ensure a greater representation and diversity of the artists and their stories. Secondly, another changed criterion in comparison to previous years are the categories in which the pieces will be assessed. This year the categories will be Photo of the Year, Story of the Year, Long- Term Project Award and Open Format Award.
Five of the best pictures of the exhibition
Furthermore, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation will invest into the exhibition experience and is proposing for example guided tours through the museum to ensure the added value and educational aspect of the exhibition.
Moreover, the purpose of the World Press Photo is illustrated on the walls of the exhibition. The quote of N´Gone Fall, a chair member of the Jury for Africa, speaks for itself.
“There are ongoing stories that we must by no means forget as it is our responsibility, collectively to keep them alive and to urge people never to turn away from the bad and the ugly for the sake of preserving a personal comfort zone. We owe it to those who are giving their lives fighting for fundamental rights, who are not just dreaming of a better world but who struggle tirelessly to make it happen.”
In addition, Tanzim Wahab, a chair member of the Jury for Asia said:” It is now more important than ever to stand in solidarity with visual storytellers and to encourage new solutions and strategies for press photography.”, and thus stresses the importance and influence of photojournalism in today’s society.
Stories of the exhibition
As the visitor makes its way through the exhibition, they can see photographs which tell stories for example about pro vaccination activist wearing beaked masks. These masks are similar to those worn by 17th-century doctors during the plague in order to draw attention of spectators around Capitol Hill to promote the message that refusing to be vaccinated will prolong the Covid-19 pandemic. A few steps further, visitors can see a picture of the cactus plant Zilla Spinosa which is used by breastfeeding mothers to wean their babies. They do it by using the sour-tasting liquid inside the stems of the plant. The exhibition offers special insights about relevant topics from very different parts of the world.
The world press photo is a place where many important topics come together collectively. As a visitor, one may feel overwhelmed by the heaviness of the worlds events nowadays. Interested people, old and young from all around the world come to the museum and learn about the worlds past, the present and what may be the future. It is needless to say, that it is not an easy way through the exhibition. It rather is a very important one since it educates the visitor and may opens up new perspectives to certain topics or at least makes the visitor think.
Hannah Dallmöller, Jan Van oostenryck
