World Press Photo 2021: Outstanding Images Nominees For Photo Of The Year

As 2020 joined the pantheon of years pivotal in history, the nominees for the 64th annual World Press Photo Contest are a reflection of those remarkably difficult 12 months.

In rewarding professional photo journalists for the best images of visual journalism, whether entered as singles or stories, judges asses their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about our world.

“In an unprecedented year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice protests around the globe, the nominees share a diversity of interpretations and perspectives to these and other urgent issues such as the climate crisis, transgender people’s rights, and territorial conflicts,” explained the organization.

California Sea Lion Plays with Mask, Environment Nominee: A curious California sea lion swims towards a face mask at the Breakwater dive site in Monterey, California, on November 19. PHOTO: RALPH PACE, UNITED STATES – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

More: World Press Photo, Facebook, Twitter h/t: forbes

Lincoln Emancipation Memorial Debate, World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: Anais (26) argues for the removal of the Emancipation Memorial with a man who wishes to keep it in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC, on 25 June. PHOTO: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, UNITED STATES- WORLD PRESS PHOTO

The First Embrace, World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: Rosa Luzia Lunardi (85) is embraced by nurse Adriana Silva da Costa Souza at Viva Bem care home, São Paulo, Brazil, on 5 August. PHOTO: MADS NISSEN, DENMARK, POLITIKEN/PANOS PICTURES – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

The Transition, Photo of the Year Nominee: Ignat, a transgender man, sits with his girlfriend Maria in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 23, 2020. PHOTO: OLEG PONOMAREV, RUSSIA – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Fighting Locust Invasion in East Africa, Photo of the Year Nominee: a massive swarm of locusts in Kenya on April 24 ravaged large areas just as the coronavirus outbreak had begun to disrupt livelihoods. PHOTO:LUIS TATO, SPAIN, FOR THE WASHINGTON POST – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Injured Man After Port Explosion in Beirut, World Press Photo of the Year Nominee: An injured man stands near the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, while firefighters work to put out the fires on August 4. PHOTO: LORENZO TUGNOLI, ITALY, FOR THE WASHINGTON POST – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Those Who Stay Will Be Champions, Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: Flint Jaguars team star Taevion Rushing jumps from one locker to another before the last regular season game of his high school basketball career, on February 24, 2020. PHOTO: CHRIS DONOVAN, CANADA – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Habibi World Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: Amma Elian, whose husband has been serving a life sentence since 2003, sits with twins born following IVF, in Tulkarm, Palestine. PHOTO: ANTONIO FACCILONGO, ITALY, GETTY REPORTAGE – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Paradise Lost, Press Photo Story of the Year Nominee: Abovyan Hasmik (69) cries at the door of her home in the village of Nerkin Sus, Nagorno-Karabakh, on November 30. PHOTO: VALERY MELNIKOV, RUSSIA, SPUTNIK – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Doctor Peyo and Mister Hassen, Contemporary issues nominee: Manon (24), who has metastatic cancer, embraces her son Ethan (7) in the presence of Peyo, a horse used in animal-assisted therapy, at the Centre Hospitalier de Calais, France, on November 30. PHOTO: JÉRÉMY LEMPIN, FRANCE – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Sakhawood © Alexey Vasilyev, Russia, Contemporary Issues Nominee: Movie extras in Sakha, a remote republic in the far northeast of the Russian Federation, with extreme weather conditions and flourishing cinema production since the 1990s. PHOTO: ALEXEY VASILYEV, RUSSIA – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Temple and Half-Mountain, Environment Nominee: Buddhist temple occupies one half of a mountain, while the other has been carved away by heavy machinery mining for jade, in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar, on 15 July. PHOTO: HKUN LAT, MYANMAR – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Pantanal Ablaze, Environment Stories nominee: a third of Brazil’s Pantanal region—the world’s largest tropical wetland and flooded grasslands, sprawling across some 140,000 to 160,000 square kilometers—was consumed by fires over the course of 2020. PHOTO: LALO DE ALMEIDA, BRAZIL, FOR FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

One Way to Fight Climate Change: Make Your Own Glaciers, Environment Stories Nominee: Communities in the Ladakh region of northern India are building huge ice cones in the desert that provide water into summer. PHOTO: CIRIL JAZBEC, SLOVENIA, FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Desert glaciers PHOTO: CIRIL JAZBEC, SLOVENIA, FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Reborn, Long Term Projects nominee: Hyper-realistic, unique and carefully crafted dolls made by artists known as ‘reborners’.‘ PHOTO: KAROLINA JONDERKO, POLAND – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

New Life, Nature category nominee: The eggs of a Wiley’s glass frog, Nymphargus wileyi, hang on the tip of a leaf in Tropical Andean cloud forest, near the Yanayacu Biological Station, Napo, Ecuador, on July 25, 2020. PHOTO: JAIME CULEBRAS, SPAIN – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Rescue of Giraffes from Flooding Island, Nature category nominee: A Rothschild’s giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) is transported to safety in a custom-built barge from a flooded Longicharo Island, Lake Baringo, in western Kenya, on December 3. PHOTO: AMI VITALE, UNITED STATES, FOR CNN – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story, Nature Stories nominee: A pair of feral pigeons befriended the photographer’s family, who were isolated in their apartment in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands, during the COVID-19 pandemic. PHOTO: JASPER DOEST, THE NETHERLANDS – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Nowhere Near, Portrait Stories nominee: More than one million immigrants from Africa officially reside in Italy, as well as an unknown number of undocumented migrants, many of whom have made a perilous and often life-threatening journey to get there. PHOTO: ALISA MARTYNOVA, RUSSIA – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Tour of Poland Cycling Crash, Sports category Nominee: Dutch cyclist, Dylan Groenewegen (left), crashes meters before the finish line after colliding with fellow team member Fabio Jakobsen during the first stage of the Tour of Poland, in Katowice, Poland, on August 5. PHOTO: TOMASZ MARKOWSKI, POLAND – WORLD PRESS PHOTO

Log Pile Bouldering © Adam Pretty, Australia, Getty Images Sports category nominee: Georg climbs a log pile while training for bouldering, in Kochel am See, Bavaria, Germany, on September 15. JASPER DOEST

Minneapolis Unrest: The George Floyd Aftermath, Spot News Story nominee: Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement spread to more than 2,000 cities in some 60 countries worldwide. PHOTO: JOHN MINCHILLO, UNITED STATES, ASSOCIATED PRESS – WORLD PRESS PHOTO