The World Press Photo organization is marking its 70th anniversary with a comprehensive retrospective exhibition that examines how photographic images construct meaning and shape our understanding of world events. The exhibition, curated by artist and photographer Cristina de Middel, is taking place simultaneously in Groningen, Johannesburg, and Dhaka, offering a global perspective on seven decades of award-winning photojournalism.
The retrospective showcases iconic images from the competition's history, starting with early winners from the 1960s and extending to recent award recipients. Among the featured photographs is the 2014 World Press Photo of the Year by John Stanmeyer, which captured African migrants on the shore of Djibouti City raising their mobile phones at night to catch an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia. This image represented a departure from traditional war photography, instead showing the human desire for connection across borders.
The collection spans multiple decades of global events and social changes. Notable early works include Ekkehart Sachse's 1966 artistic photograph of American writer James Baldwin during a book signing in Hamburg, and Don McCullin's powerful 1964 image of a Turkish woman mourning her husband killed in the Cyprus conflict. The exhibition also features Horst Faas's haunting 1969 photograph of a Vietnamese woman crying over her husband's remains, discovered in a mass grave during the Vietnam War.
Several images document pivotal moments in American history, including Eddie Adams' 1977 photograph showing the tall ship USS Constellation framed between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center during America's bicentennial celebration. The collection also includes Adams' 1979 work depicting life under white minority rule in Rhodesia, showing a school teacher walking home after her car broke down during the country's civil war period.
The 1990s brought coverage of major international conflicts and political upheavals. Georges Mérillon's 1991 World Press Photo of the Year showed a Kosovo Albanian family mourning Nasimi Elshani, killed during protests against the abolition of Kosovo's autonomy. Steve McCurry contributed a striking image of camels searching for water among Kuwait's burning oil fields in 1991, documenting the ecological disaster caused by retreating Iraqi forces during the Gulf War.
Sports photography is represented through various decades, including Sake Elzinga's inspiring 1991 image of Australian Paralympic athlete Andreas Siegl clearing 1.76 meters in the high jump despite missing an arm and a leg. More recent sports coverage includes Adam Pretty's dynamic underwater shot of competitors at the 2011 World Swimming Championships in Shanghai.
The exhibition traces the evolution of global conflicts through photographers' lenses, from Christopher Morris's documentation of the 1989 US invasion of Panama to Corinne Dufka's 1997 image of a Liberian fighter carrying a wounded comrade during the country's seven-year civil war. Eric Bouvet captured the chaotic 1989 funeral of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, where millions of mourners led to several deaths by crushing.
More contemporary issues are represented through William Daniels' 2014 photograph of internally displaced people queuing for food in the Central African Republic, and Tom Stoddart's 2002 image of a child playing with birds in earthquake-devastated Bhachau, India. The collection also includes Francesco Zizola's documentation of the endangered Nuba people in Sudan's mountains, struggling to preserve their culture amid conflict.
Cultural diversity is celebrated through images like Shobha's 2002 photograph from Dakar Fashion Week, showing a model wearing a battery necklace and CD antennae as accessories, highlighting Africa's emerging fashion capital. The exhibition also features more lighthearted moments, such as Roberto Peeters' 1974 beach scene and Harry Benson's 1985 photograph of Steve Ford, son of President Gerald Ford, on the set of "The Young and the Restless."
Recent entries demonstrate photography's continued relevance in documenting current events. The 2024 contest included Mustafa Hassouna's image of a Gaza City resident walking through rubble from Israeli airstrikes, and Johanna Maria Fritz's photograph of a volunteer rescuing cats during flooding in Kherson, Ukraine, following the breach of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023.
The retrospective aims to promote a more nuanced engagement with visual storytelling by examining recurring patterns and themes across different eras. By presenting these images together, the exhibition reveals how photojournalism has evolved while maintaining its core mission of bearing witness to human experience. The 70th anniversary celebration underscores the enduring power of photography to document history, provoke thought, and foster global understanding through shared visual narratives.
