Visual Storytelling
August 11, 2025
Joumana El Zein Khoury is the executive director of the World Press Photo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that champions photojournalism and documentary photography. Founded in the Netherlands in 1955, World Press Photo runs the world’s most prestigious annual contest on visual storytelling and its thematic exhibitions are toured worldwide and seen by millions more online. Among other initiatives, it also provides educational programs for photographers and maintains a vast archive of images documenting significant moments in history. El Zein Khoury spoke to Open Society about World Press Photo’s legacy, its evolving role in photojournalism, the impact of AI on the industry, and efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity in visual storytelling.
How would you introduce World Press Photo? If you ask ChatGPT what the most important photojournalism and documentary photography contest in the world is, it will say World Press Photo. Our exhibitions are shown to over four million people around the world every year. But I think the most interesting elements of our work are those we do implicitly: setting standards for photojournalism and documentary photography, encouraging visual literacy, and showcasing personal stories to explain universal concepts.
