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You Have to See the Powerful Winning Images from the 60th Annual World Press Photo Contest

Ron Leach | Feb 13, 2017

World Press Photo of the Year ©Burhan Ozbilici

Winners of the 2017 World Press Photo (WPP) Contest have been announced and they are spectacular as always. Not unexpectedly, Burhan Ozbilici won the coveted WPP Photo of the Year award for the powerful and tragic image (above) of a 22-year-old Turkish policeman’s assassination of Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey during a photo exhibition.

AP photographer Ozbilici stopped at the gallery on his way home from work to hear Ambassador Andrey G. Karlov’s presentation and arrived shortly before off-duty policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas began firing. “I was was afraid but I did not panic,” said Ozbilici, “I’m a journalist and I had to stand and do my job even if I got hit or killed.” WPP judges credited Ozbilici for his courage and the importance of his series of images chronicling the assassination.

Winners of this year’s 60th WPP Contest were selected from over 80,000 images made by some 5,000 photographers from 125 counties. Reuters photographer Jonathan Bachman won First Prize in the Contemporary Issue category for his photo below of Leshia Evans protesting police brutality in Baton Rouge, LA. We’ll be featuring an interview with Bachman where he discusses the story behind the shot in our upcoming April 2017 issue.

WPP First Prize, Contemporary Issue category ©Jonathan Bachman

On a far lighter note, Amy Vitale was accorded a Second Prize in the Nature Stories category for her pretty portrait of a giant panda in captivity (below). Our May issue will feature a profile of Vitale that will include more of her great work.

WPP Second Prize, Nature Stories category ©Ami Vitale

Winners of the 2017 WPP Contest will receive their awards during an April 22, 2017 ceremony in Amsterdam. One of those being honored is Mathieu Willcocks who took Third Prize in the Spot News category for the dramatic image below. This photograph shows a Libyan fisherman throwing a lifejacket to a rubber boat full of immigrants.

WPP Third Prize, Spot News category ©Mathieu Willlcocks

Prizes were awarded in a variety of categories to 45 winning photographers from 25 countries. Michael Vince Kim won First Prize in the People Stories category for a series of images, including the shot below of sisters Olga and Adelina Lim Hi.

In the well-timed image below by Tom Jenkins of the Guardian, a jockey flies off his horse during the Grand National steeplechase in Liverpool, England. Jenkins won First Prize in the Sports category for the shot.