World Press Photo 2024 Kyoto

World Press Photo displays the winning works of the World Press Photo Contest, held annually by the World Press Photo Foundation, headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The World Press Photo Contest recognises and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the last year.

This year approximately 60,000 photos and projects were submitted by approximately 4,000 people from 130 countries and regions, and works by 30 prize winners will be exhibited. The exhibition highlights the devastating human losses caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, and the repression of civilians by Myanmar’s military regime. Environmental crises such as droughts in the Amazon, wildfires in Canada, and rising sea levels in the U.S. and Fiji—stemming from climate change—are also made vividly apparent.

World Press Photo 2024 Kyoto (organised by the Kyoto World Press Photo Exhibition 2024 Executive Committee) will be held from Saturday November 30 to Sunday December 29, 2024 at the former printing factory on the basement floor of the Kyoto Shimbun Building. Set in a space where domestic and international news used to be printed every day, we hope that it will be a place to connect with what is happening around the world and create an opportunity to think about the power of photography and the role of journalism.

Event overview

Exhibition Title

World Press Photo 2024 Kyoto

Exhibition Period

November 30 (Sat) – December 29 (Sun) 2024
*Closed on December 15th

Time

10:00 AM – 18:00PM

Venue

Kyoto Shimbun Building, B1F (Former Printing Plant)
Open in Google Maps

Entrance Fee

Free

Organiser

World Press Photo 2024 Kyoto Executive Committee (The Kyoto Shimbun, World Press Photo Foundation)

Special Sponsorship

FUJIFILM Corporation

Special Cooperation

KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival

Grant

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Support

Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City, KBS Kyoto, FM Kyoto

For inquiries

Please contact the Kyoto Shimbun COM Business Promotion Bureau
Phone: 075 – 225 – 9757 (weekdays 10:00 am – 17:00 pm)
Email: wpp2024kyoto@mb.kyoto-np.co.jp
X, Facebook, Instagram accounts: @wcc2024kyoto

About Exhibiting Artist, Kazuhiko Matsumura

In 2023 photographer Kazuhiko Matsumura from the Kyoto Shimbun exhibited his work ‘Heartstrings’, part of an ongoing newspaper series on people living with dementia, in the main program of KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival. He went on to enter approximately 30 photographs of this series into the World Press Photo Contest, and won the Asia region prize in the Open Format category this year. 

Matsumura’s work expresses the emotions and symptoms of individuals living with dementia through both photography and text, aiming to portray a vision of Japanese society as it faces a super-aging population.

KYOTOGRAPHIE is delighted to see Matsumura’s success on the international stage. He has been deeply involved with various KYOTOGRAPHIE programs over the years, including:

• KYOTOGRAPHIE International Portfolio Review participant 2017, 2021, 2022, 2024
• KG+ SELECT Grand Prix winner 2022 ‘Heartstrings’
• KYOTOGRAPHIE Main Program exhibitor 2023 ‘Heartstrings’
• KYOTOGRAPHIE Masterclass tutor 2023 ‘Over the BORDER’

World Press Photo was last held in Japan in its entirety in 2021. In 2022 and 2023 select award-winning works from World Press Photo were introduced as part of the main program of KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival. 
The ‘revival’ of the World Press Photo exhibition in Japan was sparked by the opportunity to showcase Matsumura’s winning work for the Kyoto Shimbun, alongside the other World Press Photo Contest winners, in the iconic and pertinent location of the Kyoto Shimbun Building. The exhibition will be an opportunity to connect with what’s happening around the world with Japan.

About Kyoto Shimbun Building B1F Former Printing Plant

The Kyoto Shimbun Building, located to the southwest of the Imperial Palace grounds, housed a printing factory in its basement until 2015. The 1,000-square-metre space with an almost 10m-high ceiling reaches from the first basement floor to the second floor. Huge rolls of paper were delivered here, where they were fed into the presses for printing. The printed paper was then transported up to the third floor shipping room on rollers, where the newspapers were automatically folded, bundled and whisked away on conveyor belts to trucks for delivery. 

With astounding speed, this streamlined flow saw 500,000 copies of the morning edition and 300,000 of the evening edition printed daily. Letterpress printing using lead type gave way to multicolour offset printing. For 40-plus years, from 1974, the plant underwent continual technological advances, but with the decision to consolidate all the print work in Kumiyama, this plant closed at the end of November 2015. Here, however, we still get a whiff of ink. Those printing days are not long gone. Far from it, the plant’s repurposing as an exhibition space seems to have breathed new life into the place. It appears as if it has been brought back to life as a space used for a variety of purposes.

Crowdfunding Campaign

The World Press Photo 2024 Kyoto Organisation Committee is raising funds through crowdfunding to cover the costs of holding the exhibition. For this exhibition, the organisers have received special permission from the World Press Photo Foundation to import prints from the world premiere exhibition held this spring and summer in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where the Foundation is headquartered. Donations received will be used for transportation costs, venue setup costs, and other related expenses.

“How to Create a Winning Portfolio”

In conjunction with the World Press Photo exhibition, a special consultation session titled “How to Create a Winning Portfolio” will be held on Sunday, December 22nd. This session is aimed at professional photographers, photojournalists, photography students, photo editors, and others. Hideko Kataoka, the photo editor of “Newsweek Japan” and a reviewer of the KYOTOGRAPHIE International Portfolio Review, will lead a one-hour one-on-one consultation with participants, helping them develop the projects they are working on.