World Press Photo & Noorderlicht Exhibition

Noorderlicht is the partner and host of the world premiere, opening on 19 September at the Niemeyer. A day later, the exhibition travels to Johannesburg, South Africa, and in November to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Together with World Press Photo, Noorderlicht explores how we assign meaning to images and advocates for a more nuanced way of visual storytelling.

By examining 70 years of World Press Photo archive images and their context, we acknowledge the work that journalists have carried out, often under challenging circumstances. At the same time, we invite audiences to see our visual past as a living source of stories that continue to evolve. How else could we tell these stories?

Over seven decades, the three words World, Press, and Photo have changed and no longer carry the same meaning they did in 1955. This exhibition highlights that shift and asks: what’s next? It is an invitation not only to reflect on how our visual language has changed but also on how we, as viewers and as a society, can learn to see images with a sharper and more critical eye. At World Press Photo and Noorderlicht, we believe in the power of stories to spark dialogue, raise awareness, and enable change.

About World Press Photo

With images, we aim to show how complex the world is, to spark conversations, and to inspire people to take action. World Press Photo, an independent non-profit organization for photojournalism and documentary photography, was founded in the Netherlands in 1955. Each year, its contest and thematic exhibitions reach millions of visitors in over 80 locations worldwide, with our online work reaching many more.

This exhibition presents the impressive archive through the eyes of curator Cristina de Middel, a Spanish documentary photographer known for her conceptual approach to photojournalism.