The year's award-winning images are on display at the exhibition World Press Photo 2026, now open in Bucharest’s University Square.

The public can explore dozens of images that have travelled the globe, in a showcase gathering stories on the overreach of power, the climate crisis, war and conflict, but also resilience, rebuilding, and the dignity of people who refuse to give in, the organizers have said.

The 2026 edition was chosen from 57,376 images submitted by 3,747 photographers across 141 countries. The 42 winning projects cover subjects such as immigrant families being torn apart in the United States; Indigenous Achi women in Guatemala winning a landmark case after a 14-year fight; the slow violence of climate change across the Sahel; and the conflicts and protests that defined 2025.

The Photo of the Year 2026 went to photographer Carol Guzy, shooting for ZUMA Press / iWitness / Miami Herald. Separated by ICE captures a wife and her three children moments after an Ecuadorian father is detained by ICE agents straight out of an immigration hearing.

The exhibition arrives in Bucharest at a moment when press freedom is being squeezed harder than ever, the organizers, Eidos Foundation, said. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 129 journalists were killed worldwide in 2025, the highest toll since the organization started keeping records more than three decades ago.

“Lately, I have the feeling we treat freedom as a given, as if it comes bundled with the morning coffee. It does not. Look at these photographs and stop for a moment: we have the freedom to speak. We have peace. We have a roof, people beside us, somewhere to come home to at night. None of that appears in the pictures in University Square. And the absence of it is devastating,” Cristian Movilă, president of the Eidos Foundation, said.

“That's why we've been bringing World Press Photo to Romania for 15 years now, so we don't forget. Because a short memory is the quickest way to lose what we have. Hold on to your freedoms. Fight for them. And, in the meantime, enjoy them.”

The exhibition can be visited free of charge until June 19.

(Photo: the organizers)

simona@romania-insider.com