The World Press Photo Contest recognizes professional photographers for the best pictures contributing to the past year of visual journalism. These are pictures often taken under very stressful and dangerous conditions. The winners were chosen by an independent jury that reviewed more than 73,996 photographs entered by 4,282 photographers from 125 countries.
Ask any pro photographer and they will tell you that their cameras and gear are just tools of their trade (some of the winners using a number of different camera brands and equipment). The camera and equipment do not make the pictures. But, it is still interesting to see what camera they used to capture those prize-winning photos. (Otherwise, why bother gathering and displaying that information?)
Of course, DSLRs are what we’d expected many pro photographers to still be using, and both Canon and Nikon full-frame DSLRs figure prominently in the mix. But, what is telling in these 2020 winners is the coming of age of mirrorless cameras. And they do not have to be full-frame either. We also have winners using compact cameras, an action camera, drones and even venerable film cameras.
I am impressed at how well Fujifilm (medium-format and APS-C mirrorless, and compact cameras) figure in this year’s winners.
(I was tickled by dpreview’s article published today comparing the Fujifilm X-H1 to the X-T4. I agree with the conclusion that the X-T4 is technically superior to the X-H1 in almost every respect, again begging the question why Fujifilm bothers in insisting that it will continue the X-H series. However, isn’t it interesting that the 2020 World Press Photo of the Year winning picture by Yasuyoshi Chiba was taken with the Fujifilm X-H1 APS-C mirrorless camera? So, Fujifilm, you may have something here with the X-H series.)
Yasuyoshi Chiba wins the World Press Photo of the Year in the General News category for his Straight Voice submission. He shot that photo on a Fujifilm X-H1 APS-C mirrorless camera.
Romain Laurendeau wins the World Press Photo Story of the Year in the Long-Term Projects category for his Kho, the Genesis of Revolt submission. He shot those photos on the Fujifilm X100 series of premium compact cameras.
Here are the results by camera use, with the camera brand listed alphabetically.
Note: Some winners did not list the camera they used, so are not figured in this list. Also, where there are more than one picture in a series, we have linked to only one picture in the series. If we missed your entry or made a mistake, please let us know.
CANON
1D X II Full-Frame DSLR – Kim Kyung-Hoon
1D X Full-Frame DSLR – Farouk Batiche
5D IV Full-Frame DSLR – Alessio Mamo, Alon Skuy, Brent Stirton, Dai Kurokawa, Fabio Bucciarelli, Ivor Prickett, Nicolò Filippo Rosso, Oliver Weiken, Sean Davey, Silvia Izquierdo, Steve Winter
5D III Full-Frame DSLR – Antonio Pizarro Rodriguez, Lee-Ann Olwage, Mulugeta Ayene, Tomek Kaczor
5DS R Full-Frame DSLR – Brent Stirton
5DS Full-Frame DSLR – Katie Orlinsky
DJI
FC6310 – Luca Locatelli, Katie Orlinsky
FUJIFILM
GFX 100 medium-format mirrorless – Luca Locatelli
X-H1 APS-C mirrorless camera – Yasuyoshi Chiba
X-T3 APS-C mirrorless camera – Ricardo García Vilanova
X-Pro2 APS-C mirrorless – Alain Schroeder, Brent Stirton, Peter Mather, Maximilian Mann
X-T10 APS-C mirrorless – Tatsiana Tkachova
X100 series APS-C premium compact cameras – Romain Laurendeau, Tatsiana Tkachova
GOPRO
HERO5 Black VR/Action camera – Peter Mather
HASSELBLAD
500C/M medium-format film SLR – Sabiha Çimen
LEICA
M10 Full-Frame mirrorless – Olivier Papegnies
MAMIYA
RZ67 Pro II medium-format film SLR – Tadas Kazakevičius
NIKON
D5 Full-Frame DSLR – Matthew Abbott, Nicolas Asfouri, Noah Berger, Wally Skalij
D4S Full-Frame DSLR – Oli Scarff
D4 Full-Frame DSLR – Peter Mather
D3 Full-Frame DSLR – Daniele Volpe
D850 Full-Frame DSLR – Alejandro Prieto
D810 Full-Frame DSLR – Nikita Teryoshin
D800 Full-Frame DSLR – Esther Horvath
D750 Full-Frame DSLR – Frédéric Noy
D600 Full-Frame DSLR – Daniele Volpe
D5200 APS-C DLSR – Peter Mather
D3300 APS-C DSLR – Peter Mather
SONY
A7R III Full-Frame mirrorless – Adam Ferguson, Lorenzo Tugnoli, Mark Peterson
A7R II Full-Frame mirrorless – Lorenzo Tugnoli, Ramon Espinosa
View all 2020 World Press Photo Contest Winners
