World Press Photo 2025 Arrives in Budapest

This year's edition of the World Press Photo competition in Hungary has opened at the Biodome near Budapest's City Park. The exhibition showcases the best and most important photojournalism and documentary photography of the past year. The organizer of the Budapest exhibition that presents a total of 59,320 photos submitted to the competition by 3,778 photographers from 141 countries is award-winning photographer, photojournalist and university professor Tamás Révész.

“Press photography does not lie, take sides or distort, it simply reveals the reality of the world to us,” Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said at the opening of the exhibition, adding that confrontation is what he personally values most in photography.

The value of these images lies not only in what they depict, but also in how they do so. This exhibition also praises the achievements, and often the courage and perseverance, of the photographers behind the cameras, he added.

The mayor also drew attention to the accompanying exhibition entitled 'Budapest 75', which commemorates the 1950s with contemporary Fortepan photographs and newsreel footage. He recalled that the current administrative area of Budapest was established 75 years ago, in 1950.

Endre Sós, Director General of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden to which the Biodome belongs, reminded the audience in his welcoming speech that his is the second year that the World Press Photo exhibition has been held at the Biodome.

He recalled that they regularly host exhibitions on birds and nature, but they would also like to convey as much knowledge as possible about the coexistence of humans and nature. It is important for us to know what reality is, and reality is also the driving force behind the World Press Photo exhibition, he emphasized.

Willem van Ee, the new Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Hungary, also greeted the audience. He said of the work of photojournalists that they must be able to work freely, without restrictions, so that they can provide us with relevant and reliable information and help us navigate this extremely complex world.

He drew attention to the Iron People project, which presents the war in Ukraine from the perspective of the railway community through the lens of Dutch photographer Jelle Krings.

The World Press Photo exhibition is open until November 9.