Power shots: The photographs more potent than words

Amazonian Dystopia, Pará, northern Brazil.Credit: Lalo de Almeida

Amazonian Dystopia, Pará, northern Brazil

Members of the Munduruku community line up to board a plane to Brasilia on June 13, 2013, to protest the construction of the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, in northern Brazil. The Munduruku tribe inhabits the banks of another tributary of the Amazon, the Tapajós River, several hundred kilometres away, where the government has plans to build further hydroelectric projects. Despite opposition from several fronts, the Belo Monte project was completed in 2019. This image is part of a series documenting the social, political and environmental realities of life in Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro. The series won the World Press Photo
Long-Term Project Award.

Lalo de Almeida, for Folha de São Paulo/Panos Pictures

Endless War, north-east Srinagar, Kashmir.Credit: Dar Yasin

Endless War, north-east Srinagar, Kashmir

Kashmiri women cross a stone wall on December 14, 2021, to join the funeral of Constable Rameez Ahmad Baba who, according to Indian police, was on a bus that was attacked by militants in the Ganderbal district of Indian-administered Kashmir. At least 11 people were reported injured and three killed in the attack. Violence and unrest continues in Kashmir as a result of the dispute between India and Pakistan that dates back to independence from Britain and partition of the region in 1947.

Dar Yasin, for The Associated Press

The People Who Feed the United States, South Dakota, US.Credit: Ismail Ferdous

The People Who Feed the United States, South Dakota, US

José worked in a meatpacking plant until contracting COVID-19 in April 2020. He was in hospital on a ventilator for five months, and still uses an oxygen cylinder. Here, he’s pictured at home on September 6, 2020, with his sister, Sara, who took care of him during his illness. Sara also worked at the factory; while meatpacking plants remained open during the pandemic, COVID spread quickly among its workers, more than a third of whom are immigrants. She left the industry to become a house cleaner.

Ismail Ferdous, for Agence VU’

Evia Island Wildfire, Greece.Credit: Konstantinos Tsakalidis

Evia Island Wildfire, Greece

Evia Island resident Panayiota Kritsiopi, 81, cries out as a wildfire approaches her house on August 8, 2021, following the hottest weather Greece had experienced in 30 years.

Konstantinos Tsakalidis, for Bloomberg News

Ukraine Crisis, Mariupol, south-east Ukraine.Credit: Guillaume Herbaut

Ukraine Crisis, Mariupol, south-east Ukraine

Women make camouflage gear for snipers at the Novy Mariupol Centre, an organisation that collects equipment for Ukrainian soldiers, on September 26, 2014. This image is part of a project documenting almost eight years of the lead-up to the current war.

Guillaume Herbaut, for Agence VU’

Kamloops Residential School, British Columbia, Canada (Winner: World Press Photo of 2022).Credit: Amber Bracken

Kamloops Residential School, British Columbia, Canada (Winner: World Press Photo of 2022)

Dresses hung on crosses along a roadside on June 19, 2021, commemorate children who died at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, an institution created to assimilate Indigenous children, who were frequently taken from their homes by force. More than 200 potential unmarked graves have been detected at the site of the school, which closed in 1978.

Amber Bracken, for The New York Times

Afraid To Go To School, Zamfara state, north-west Nigeria.Credit: Sodiq Adelakun Adekola

Afraid To Go To School, Zamfara state, north-west Nigeria

A mother cries at her home on February 27, 2021, the day after her two daughters were abducted from their high-school dormitory in the middle of the night. They were among 279 girls snatched by gunmen. The first mass school abduction in Nigeria took place in 2014, when members of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 girls from a government boarding school in the country’s north-east. The abductions – some conducted by jihadist groups to oppose Western secularism, others to gather ransoms or collect hostages to bargain for gang-member prisoner-swaps – have continued, and now extend to boys, too.

Sodiq Adelakun Adekola, for Agence-France Presse

As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia, Russia.Credit: Nanna Heitmann

As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia, Russia

People walk along Russia’s Buluus glacier on June 16, 2021. The area is a popular retreat in summer, when temperatures in the regional capital can reach the high 30s. Permafrost beneath the glacier keeps at least part of it frozen through the hottest months, but local scientists have reportedly said that glacial melt in the region has sped up over the past decade.

Nanna Heitmann, for Magnum Photos

The World Press Photo Contest celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography each year. Mags King, photographic editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, was a member of the 2022 jury for the South-east Asia and Oceania region.

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