Fujifilm to sponsor World Press Photo contest, provide GFX prize packages: Digital Photography Review
“Habibi” – 2021 World Press Photo Story of the Year
Photo: Antonio Faccilongo/World Press Photo
Fujifilm has signed on to sponsor the World Press Photo (WPP) annual awards. The company says it will support workshops, printing services, and provide Fujifilm GFX100 II mirrorless medium format camera kits as prizes. Recipients of World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo Story of the Year, World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award, and World Press Photo Open Format Award will each take home a prize package.
The WPP awards rank among the most prestigious accolades in photojournalism and documentary circles. Winning a top prize earns a spot in a traveling exhibition, inclusion in an annual book and a nice resume line that can help open doors to informal portfolio reviews with top editors. This year, winners of four global categories will also take home gear from Fujifilm.
WPP received over 60,000 entries; regional winners will be announced on April 3, 2024, with the global winners announcement on April 18, 2024.
“We are very pleased to announce this strategic partnership with Fujifilm,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, Executive Director of World Press Photo Foundation, in a written statement. “This strategic partnership will help us reach more people, improve our exhibitions, and directly support the news and documentary photography community.”
“Straight Voice” – 2020 World Press Photo of the Year
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/World Press Photo
Beyond the GFX100 II camera prize packages (consisting of two lenses and the body), Fujifilm will also sponsor ten workshops in cities worldwide in 2024, with more in the following years. As of press time, scant details on the scope of these workshops or who is eligible to attend have been shared, and only four countries have been listed for where workshops will take place: Australia, Netherlands (WPP’s home base), Germany and Mexico. A traveling WPP exhibition is planned in more than 80 cities worldwide, starting in Amsterdam on April 19, 2024.
“We are excited to establish this strategic partnership, enabling us to contribute to the growth of trustworthy storytelling and global communication through the power of photography,” said Masato Yamamoto, Fujifim’s Director, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Imaging Solutions Division in a press release. “Through this partnership with the World Press Photo Foundation, we support the creative individuals involved in the dynamic field of photography.”
A traveling exhibition of winning images will begin in Amsterdam on April 19, 2024.
Photo: Frank van Beek/ANP/World Press Photo
The two organizations have gone out of their way to avoid calling this a sponsorship and have leaned into calling it a ‘strategic partnership.’ The awards have a long pedigree as a platform for journalistic work, not without their fair share of controversy over the years, which is likely the reason for the careful choice of language used.
