The Gear Used by World Press Photo 2023 Regional Winners

The regional winners of the 2023 World Press Photo Contest have just been announced. Photojournalists all around the world often tend to use their gear for a lot longer than enthusiasts do. It’s interesting to see how many still don’t appear to have switched to mirrorless cameras. Whatever the camera used, these images are powerful in their visual impact.

In total, the awards committee received 60,448 photographs from 3,752 photographers worldwide. here are 6 regional categories – Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia & Oceania. Each category has 4 winners in the Singles, Stories, Long-Term Projects, and Open Format subcategories. Judging took place from 14th Jan to 24th Feb 2023. Six regional juries and a global jury convened online and offline for this.

At first, the regional jury members made their selections. Then the global jury finalized the 24 regional winners. Of these 24, only 4 go on to win the global category awards. Click here to find out more about this year’s judging process.

Every regional winner takes home €1000 in cash and a physical award. They also get an invitation to the Winners’ Program in Amsterdam and a physical award. Winners and honorable mentions get featured in the annual yearbook.

In addition, the global jury of the World Press Photo Contest gave out honorable mentions for various works.

To better live up to the word ‘World’ that is part of our name, and in order to offer a more global and better geographic balance of perspectives, we changed the set up of our contest to a regional model.

Joumana El Zein Khoury, Executive Director, World Press Photo

Table of Contents

What Makes The World Press Photo Winners Special?

Press photos aren’t meant to be comfortable to look at in most cases. They’re intended to evoke emotions of all kinds. They often remind us of the privileged lives that most of us reading this piece live. The images by regional winners from this year’s contest do just that. I’m not suggesting anyone should switch genres and dive into photojournalism to change the world with their camera. But the next time you grab your gear and head out, take a moment to think about how you could make someone’s life a little better with your photography skills.

Many of the image files that the World Press Photo communications team shared with us had no EXIF data. Most of the European ones had no EXIF info at all. None of the ones in the South America category showed any.

We know that you can see the winners anywhere else, but we also know that a bunch of you are curious about the gear that used to make the images. So here it is.

Africa

Singles – Lee-Ann Olwage (Canon EOS R6, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II)

Advocacy and education is needed in order to support communities in caring for the elderly and understanding old age conditions and cognitive impairment. Inclusive discussions about dementia in Africa are essential if policymakers and key stakeholders are to improve the wellbeing of people with dementia and their caregivers in their global plan to improve the lives of people living with dementia.

The Canon EOS R6 received high praise in our review.

Stories – Nick Hannes (Fujifilm GFX 100S, FUJINON GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR)

Muslim praying in front of a billboard of president Al-Sisi on a roundabout in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, with the towers of Central Business District in the back. Following persistent problems of overpopulation, pollution and traffic congestion, the construction of a giant new satellite city in the desert east of the current capital started in 2015. This New Administrative Capital (NAC) is part of President A-Sisi’s Egypt Vision 2030, a long-term plan to develop Egypt. The future population of the NAC is estimated at 6 million. Critics predict a growing socio-economic gap between the New Capital and old Cairo, left to its own devices. Instead of solving existing problems, Egypt Vision 2030 seems to be a prestigious political project aimed at the expansion of the power apparatus, surveillance and global leadership.

Asia

Singles – Maya Levin (Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L)

Israeli police clash with mourners as they carry the coffin of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in east Jerusalem, on May 13, 2022. Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for more than 25 years, was shot dead two days earlier during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Stories – Mads Nissen (Canon Mirrorless – Model Unknown, Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8L)

Khalil Ahmad kidney was sold to support his family. The parents of Khalil Ahmad, age 15, couldn’t afford to buy food for their eleven children anymore, so in a desperate attempt to save the family, they decided to sell the left kidney of their oldest son. 15-year-old Khalil Ahmad used to be good at football and cricket – and to tease his siblings a bit. But after his parents sold away his kidney, the boy has completely changed. He feels pain every day and doesn’t have the same strength and joy as before. Since the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy, the illegal trade in organs appears to have increased dramatically. Khalil Ahmad’s family was paid US$3,500 for the kidney, an amount that would have taken his father years to earn even if there was work for him – but there isn’t.

Long-Term Projects – Anush Babajanyan (Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L)

Uzbekistan: Dinara’s family is still dependent on the sea. Both her father and her husband work along its shores as Artemia Salina shrimp farmers, but the sea is now more than 180 kilometers away from their homes in Muynak. 18-year-old Dinara and her younger relative, on Dinara’s wedding day in Muynak, a former sea port in Uzbekistan, on October 27, 2019. Dinara’s grandparents were employed within the formerly thriving fishing industry of Muynak. Her family is still dependent on the Aral Sea, as both her father and her husband work by the sea as Artemia Salina farmers.

Europe

Stories – Evgeniy Maloletka (Sony A7S III, Sony FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3)

Janna Goma, right, with her family settle in a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022.

North and Central America

Singles – Jonas Kakó (Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 50mm f1.4)

Afredo Fierro (links, Eagle Eye Honey) und seine Mitarbeiter Ubaldo und José, während der Pflege von Bienen in der Wüste von Arizona bei Wenden. Seit mehreren Jahren müssen die Männer Wasser für die Bienen in Tränken bereitstellen, da die Völker sonst nicht überleben können, seitdem es immer weniger Regenfall gibt. 11.03.2022, Wenden Arizona

Long-Term Projects – Cristopher Rogel Blanquet (Dji Air 2S, Dji 22.4mm f2.8)

Aerial view of the Villa Guerrero region, hundreds of hectares are covered by greenhouses used for flower growing. 10/01/22 Villa Guerrero, Estado de Mexico, Mexico. Most of the floricultural activity in the region is carried out under plastic tarps. People’s houses get lost in a sea of plastic. BEAUTIFUL POISON is a long-term photography project documenting the public health problem associated to the unrestricted use of agrochemicals by the flower industry in the region of Villa Guerrero, Mexico. Despite conclusive medical studies linking pesticide and fertilizer components to the recurrence of congenital malformations, leukemia, lymphoma, degenerative blindness, stillbirths, infertility and cancer, the healthcare demands of the population in Mexico’s flower belt have largely been overlooked by local authorities and institutions.

Sometimes you need to see the (literal) big picture to understand the scene better. Cristopher decide to go the aerial route for this photo, and the caption shows us why

Open Format – Ashley Peña (Canon Rebel T6/EOS 1300D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II)

Who would have thought that an entry-level DSLR could take an award-winning image in an international press photo contest? Not me. This shows that any competent camera is capable of taking quality photos. Not necessarily the latest ones you’re lusting after in the hopes that the upgrade will improve your photos.

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Long-Term Projects – Kimberly dela Cruz (Canos EOS 6D, Canon EF 50mm f1.8)

16-year old AJ mourns at the crime scene where his neighbor Antonio Perez has been shot by unidentified assailants on January 3, 2017, outside their shanty in Pasay City in the Philippines. Perez works in the barangay responsible for assisting the police in their operations in communities.

Honorable Mention – Nadia Shira Cohen (Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 28mm f1.8)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia-January 17th, 2022: Chandarayoth Pheap, now 3 cries in his grandmother, Bonan Ky’s arms at his surrogate mother Sreyroth’s home where he is being raised. His grandmother takes care of him while his mother is at work cooking in the garage where her husband works. Up until 2016 surrogacy had been tolerated by Cambodian authorities, yet when Thailand ruled the practice illegal and Cambodia became the next hub for surrogate mothers, the government began to crack down. In 2017 surrogate mothers for the first time, faced criminal charges on human trafficking and in 2018 a house of 32 surrogate mothers was discovered prompting several arrests and imprisonment. The surrogate mothers have been obligated by law to raise the babies most of whose biological parents are thought to be Chinese, straining already impoverished households. Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

For me, I was looking for pictures that grab you, and that won’t let go. There are images here that let you understand ‘this could be you’. That I can’t get away from.
World Press Photo Contest Jury chair, New York Times photo editor and co-founder of Diversify Photo, Brent Lewis

The Stark Truth

Something that I’ve noticed for many years now with winning press photography images is the reoccurring theme of human suffering. Most, if not all of the winning images for over a decade depict tragedy of the worst kind. Why, as a species, are we still so capable of voluntarily devastating the lives of those less fortunate than ours. Everyone you see in these winning photos has had their livelihood upturned due to some conflict or the other. Almost all of the subjugation and killings that happen due to wars can be stopped today if world leaders put their minds to it. But it’s never the case, as I’ve been observing in over 30 years of following world politics. And that just means that World Press Photo Contens winners for the foreseeable future, are going to be mostly comprised of images of humans struggling for basic rights and privileges.

The emotions that you see in these images is 100% real, unstaged, and raw. The authenticity of the frames screams in your face. The perceptible reality of each photo is something that no AI tool can replicate. So while you might be in awe at what AI generators can do today, let’s remind ourselves what’s real is and what isn’t. You might marvel at what a computer with some data set training can replicate for your screen. But what these photographers would have had to go through to capture these frames, is far more admirable. And my feelings and empathy will pick reality over AI any day.

All images used with the permission of the World Press Photo Contest communications team. The lead image is by Jonathan Fontaine.