“Photojournalism has never been an easy job. It has never been lucrative, secure, or guaranteed an audience. And still, the photographers go. To the courts and conflict zones, to the silent corners of the world where history is being written without witnesses. “They go because they believe that seeing matters.”
These words are from Kira Pollack, president of the global jury of the whose Photo of the Year was released this Thursday. And precisely that seeing matters is perfectly captured in the winning snapshot, titled Separated by ICE. Its author is Carol Guzy, from ZUMA Press and iWitness for the Miami Herald.
It was taken inside “one of the few federal buildings in the United States where photographers were allowed access: a single hallway where Carol Guzy and others came day after day to document what was happening. Capture a heartbreaking moment: a family separated by the state“, as detailed by the organization.
Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant with no criminal recordwas detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents following a hearing in immigration court in New York City on August 26, 2025. He supported the family, so his wife and three children, ages seven, 13 and 15not only have they experienced deep emotional trauma, but they have been led to financial difficulties.
“What Carol Guzy has documented is not an isolated case, but a policy applied indiscriminately to people who attend their hearings in good faith. It constitutes evidence and documentation of a government policy systematically applied to people who followed the rules that had been indicated to them,” the event stressed.
Guzy, the winner, wanted to highlight in her gratitude that “we witness the suffering of countless families, but also their dignity and resiliencewhich transcend adversity and are deeply moving. The courage to open their lives to our cameras has allowed us to tell their stories. And, without a doubt, this award belongs to them, not to me.”
The two finalists
The World Press photo has selected two other finalist photographs that also strike at a glance. The first is Humanitarian emergency in Gaza by Saber Nuraldin, a photographer born there. It shows Palestinians “boarding a supply truck as it enters the Gaza Strip through the Zikim crossing, in an attempt to secure flour, during what the Israeli military called a ‘tactical suspension’ of operations to allow the passage of humanitarian aid. July 27, 2025.”
Title: Aid Emergency in Gaza
According to a UN report, between May 27 and July 31, at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking food were killed at or near aid distribution points. According to the jury, the image “makes visible the magnitude and urgency of the famine in the second year of this war in Gaza. Its direct composition forces the viewer to stop and provides visual evidence of the famine and destruction surrounding the scene.”
Victor J. Blue achieved second runner-up status with The trials of the Achí women to The New York Times Magazine. According to her caption, Mrs. Paulina Ixpatá Alvarado, a plaintiff who was detained and attacked for 25 days in 1983, appears with other Achi women in front of a court in Guatemala City, on May 30, 2025.
Title: The Trials of the Achi Women
For four decades, in the town of Rabinal, a group of indigenous Mayan Achí women lived in the same communities as the men who had raped themsometimes even as neighbors. The Guatemalan Civil War led to the genocide of thousands of Achí Mayans by the Army and state-backed paramilitary forces, who used sexual violence as a systematic weapon to oppress indigenous communities.
In 2011, 36 women broke their silence and began, and won, a 14-year legal battle against their attackers. On the afternoon the photograph was taken, three former members of the Civil Self-Defense Patrols were convicted of rape and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 40 years in prison each.
For the award jury, the classical and sober approach of this photograph “values the dignity and authority of women, deliberately counteracting historical visual narratives that present women – especially survivors of sexual violence – as powerless subjects. Instead, the portrait documents a moment of collective strength at the end of their long fight for justice“.
