For 70 years, the World Press Photo Contest has been the ultimate time capsule of photojournalism.

But the three words that make up its name—World, Press, and Photo—don’t mean what they did in 1955. The “world” is no longer filtered through a single Western perspective. The “press” is a fragmented battlefield of digital noise. And the “photo?” Well, it no longer needs a camera to exist.

Yet, despite all this change, our visual language keeps repeating itself. We’ve built a library of tropes: heroic men in action, emotional women in distress, Africa as a place of suffering, and melodramatic white soldiers. These patterns have become shortcuts, shaping how stories are told, and, more importantly, how they are remembered.

This tension between new tools and old habits raises a crucial question: If the ways we capture and share images has changed, why do we keep telling the same stories in the same way? What do these recurring images say about what we choose to see—and what we ignore?

This exhibition is an invitation to rethink not just how photojournalism has evolved but how we, as viewers and citizens, should be learning to read images with a sharper and more critical eye.

 

About the Artists

Ashley Peña (b. 2000) is a Dominican American artist originally from Maryland, United States, and has lived and worked in New York as an image-maker since 2019. She is currently studying to obtain her Bachelor of Fine Arts at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Known for being up-close and intimate, Peña uses her lens to document and tell stories through her images. With a primary focus on subjects across the diaspora, she explores what vulnerability looks like privately versus publicly. Her work also centers on exhibiting relationships and love within the community while also communicating the nuances of Black culture for a sense of familiarity and comfort–to have people in her community see themselves within the images and outside of Eurocentric standards of beauty, being seen as worthy, desirable, and sacred.

Christopher Morris, based in Paris, was born in California in 1958 and began his career as a documentary conflict photographer working almost exclusively for TIME magazine, where he has been on contract since 1990. He has been credited with redefining political coverage in America during his years working for TIME at the White House, from 2000 till 2009. Simultaneously to his career as a photojournalist, Morris has expanded his work into the fashion world. He has received various awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, the Olivier Rebbot Award, the Journalism Award from the Overseas Press Club, two Infinity Awards for photojournalism from the International Center of Photography in New York, the PDN Look Fashion Editorial Award, and numerous World Press Photo awards. Morris is a founding member of the photojournalist agency VII, based in New York.

Born in 1962, since the 1980s Francesco Zizola has documented the world’s major conflicts and their hidden crises, focusing on the social and humanitarian issues that define life in the developing world as well as in western countries. A strong ethical commitment and a distinctive aesthetic eye are specific features of his pictures. In 2008 he founded 10b Photography (Rome, Italy), a multipurpose centre for digital photography promoting photography culture through exhibitions, workshops, and lectures. He received several awards–including nine awards in World Press Photo contests and four Picture of the Year International awards (POYi)–and published seven books. Francesco lives in Rome, Italy.

French photographer Georges Mérillon (France, 1957) started his photographic career in 1980 as a freelance photographer for GEO magazine and Le Figaro Magazine. In 1981, he was one of the founding members of the agency Collectif Presse. He joined Gamma in 1987 and covered major international news events. His work was published in newspapers and magazines such as Libération, L’Express, TIME, Newsweek, Paris Match, Le Figaro Magazine, and Stern. Between 2001 and 2005, Mérillon temporarily stopped photographing to become Chief Photo Editor of Gamma. In 2005, Mérillon left Gamma to renew his own photographic career.

Hocine Zaourar, known as Hocine, started as an amateur photographer in 1970. Since the beginning of his career, he has been portraying everyday life in Algeria. In Algiers, he photographed the Kasbah, the fisherfolk in the port, children in working-class neighborhoods, and the homeless, with particular emphasis on people living in harsh conditions. In 1983, he became an assistant teacher of photography at the art academy of Algiers. Hocine joined Reuters as a photojournalist in 1989 and has been with Agence France-Presse since January 1993. He was initially assigned to cover the news in different countries, particularly in Somalia, Rwanda, and Zaire. Later, he concentrated entirely on photographing political and social events in his own country.

Mário Cruz was born in 1987 in Lisbon, Portugal. Cruz is an independent photographer focused on social injustice and human rights issues. He studied photojournalism at Cenjor–Professional School of Journalism–and, in 2006, he started to cooperate with LUSA–Portuguese News Agency/EPA–European Pressphoto Agency. “Recent Blindness” (Winner of Estacao Imagem Mora 2014 Award), “Roof” (Winner of Magnum 30 Under 30), and “Talibes, Modern Day Slaves” (Contemporary Issues first-prize winner at World Press Photo). His work has been published in Newsweek, International New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, CTXT.es, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Paul Lowe is a senior lecturer in photography and an award-winning photographer. Since 2004, Paul has been the overall course director of the Masters in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication. His work is represented by Panos Pictures, and has appeared in TIME, Newsweek, LIFE, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, and The Independent, among others. He has covered breaking news the world over, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela’s release, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the destruction of Grozny. His book, Bosnians, documenting 10 years of the war and postwar situation in Bosnia, was published in April 2005.

Seamus Murphy‘s work as a photojournalist has taken him on frequent assignments to Afghanistan, but also across the world, from Iran, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq to Kenya, India, the US, and more. His awards include four previous World Press Photo awards, a POYi and a W. Eugene Smith Memorial grant. Murphy’s work has appeared in a range of leading international publications, such as The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, TIME, Newsweek, National Geographic Adventure, Paris Match, Le Figaro Magazine, Stern, GEO, The Guardian Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph Magazine, and The Independent Magazine. His work in Afghanistan led to the book, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan.

Russian photojournalist Valery Shustov (1926-2006) worked briefly for the Sovinformbureau, before moving to its successor RIA Novosti.

70 Years of World Press Photo

Featuring: Various Artists

Curated by: Cristina de Middel

Locations

View Location Details Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza

1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

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This program is supported by DutchCultureUSA, a program of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United States.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.

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