Colombian photojournalists Ever Andrés Mercado Puentes and Ferley Ospina won the 2026 World Press Photo Award in the Stories for South America category. The competition selected their work from among 57,376 photographs submitted by 3,747 photographers from 141 countries. Their series documents, respectively, an Afro-descendant ritual in the Colombian Pacific region and the impact of paternal absence in the country.
The organization announced the regional winners on Apr. 10. For the first time, the world’s most prestigious photojournalism contest has honored two Colombian photographers in the same edition.
The festival that endures in the Pacific region
Mercado Puentes, a native of Buenaventura, won with his series Manacillos: A Return to Life. The work documents the Fiesta de los Manacillos in the Afro-Colombian community of Juntas, on the banks of the Yurumanguí River in the Colombian Pacific region. The community sits hours away by boat, accessible only via the river.
The ritual takes place during Holy Week and blends Catholicism with spiritual traditions of African origin. According to the jury, the photographer “sheds light on a culturally significant narrative that is often overlooked.” The judges also highlighted his close ties to the community, which allowed him to craft a story with direct insight into local dynamics.
The burden of growing up without a father
Ferley Ospina, based in Cucuta, won with Nombrar la ausencia (Naming the Absence), a series about the absence of fathers. One of the central images depicts Valeria, a five-year-old girl in Norte de Santander, playing behind a curtain at her aunt’s house while her single mother raises her alone.
The autobiographical element runs throughout the project. Illegal armed groups murdered Ospina’s father in 1999 in a border area of Norte de Santander, forcing the photographer to flee with his mother. As a result, his work explores the emotional and social implications of that experience. The jury noted that the series functions as “a personal visual diary” and conveys “feelings of loneliness and emptiness without resorting to explicit explanations.”
South America in the global selection
The region also stood out with other works. Argentine photographer Tadeo Bourbon won in the Singles category with Milei’s Argentina. Brazilian photographer Eduardo Anizelli won in the Stories category with his coverage of police killings in Rio de Janeiro in Oct. 2025. Fellow Argentine photographer Pablo E. Piovano won the award in the Long-Term Projects category with The Human Cost of Agrotoxins. The series documents the toll of an economic model that prioritizes agro-industrial profit over the lives of rural citizens.
Photo of the Year and global exhibition
World Press Photo, founded in 1955, will announce the winner of the Photo of the Year on April 23 at De Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church) in Amsterdam, selected from among the 42 regional winners. The recipient of this top award will receive an additional prize of 10,000 euros (about US$11,700).
The winning photographs will be featured in a traveling exhibition that will visit over 60 locations worldwide throughout 2026.