Samar Abu Elouf won the World Press Photo of the Year in 2025 for her portrait of a young Palestinian boy. The picture, taken for The New York Times, shows nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour with his arms missing just below each shoulder.
Elouf is from Gaza and was evacuated in December of 2023. She lives in the same apartment building as Ajjour in Qatar, where he is waiting on medical treatment. The photo was selected from over 50,000 entries by 3000 journalists.
“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations,” said World Press Photo Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury.
Lucy Conticello, the competition’s Grand Jury Chair, said common themes emerged from the thousands of entrants: “Conflict, migration and climate change. Another way of seeing them is as stories of resilience, family and community.”
Finalist photos include portraits of Chinese people keeping themselves warm after crossing the US-Mexico border and a young man carrying food across a dried-up river bed in Brazil’s Amazon basin region (as seen above).
For the Asia-Pacific and Oceania region, Jae C Hong’s moving capture of Nicole Matta and her birth father Jang Dae-Chang was highlighted. The photo shows the two reunited in Seoul, South Korea, 40 years after their separation.
World Press Photo hosts its prestigious annual competition to celebrate international photojournalism.
