Each year, an independent international jury, consisting of thirteen members, judges the entries (in ten different Categories), submitted by photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from all corners of the world. This year’s competition attracted 4,448 photographers from 122 countries. In the total 98% of the 83.044 submitted images was entered in digitized format.

The annual exhibition is shown each year at about 85 venues in 40 countries all over the world, subject to the condition that all prize-winning entries are exhibited without any form of censorship. This year’s exhibition contains approximately 200 photographs. The exhibition does not only show the best in press photography in the past year, it can also be seen as a historical document containing the world’s main events of 2005.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of visitors around the globe view this exhibition bears out the power of the photograph to transcend cultural and linguistical frontiers.

The World Press Photo foundation is an independent platform for international press photography, founded in 1955. This platform manifests itself in the annual World Press Photo contest and the corresponding yearbook and exhibition.

World Press Photo aims to increase public interest in press photography and to promote the free flow of information worldwide. World Press Photo also stimulates discussion about aspects of photojournalism among those who are professionally involved in it. This takes the form of initialing and organizing the annual Joop Swart Masterclass and seminars and debates in different countries.

World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon and TNT. The Express Group presents the World Press Photo in India.

For The Express Group the association with the World Press Photo and the exhibition is a matter of great pride as the newspaper has always stood for the best encapsulation of news and Press photography. The exhibition held last year over a 3-week duration actually saw over 50,000 visitors coming in to the exhibition, who were all completely enamored by the experience.