World Press Photo focuses on dark side of world events

The protests in Venezuela, the battle for Mosul in Iraq, the attack on London’s Westminster bridge, the Rohingya crisis, or the actions by Boko Haram... These are just some of the events that shaped the world last year. Now, striking images of all of these events have been brought together in the World Press Photo exhibition, which runs until May 27 at the CCCB in Barcelona.

As every year, the images on display in the exhibition showing off some of the best photojournalism in the world are not for the faint of heart, as the photographs tend to focus on the darker side of human nature. An example is the winning photo of this year’s edition of the World Press Photo by Venezuelan photographer Ronaldo Schemidt showing a protester catching fire during the crisis in Venezuela.

The exhibition paints a grim picture of world affairs, but also uses spectacular images to focus attention on the unpalatable but essential issues of war, violence and crisis. This year’s edition, for example, covers the plight of refugees forced to flee their homes all over the world to escape conflict, poverty and persecution. In all, over 73,000 images were submitted by photojournalists for this 61st edition of World Press Photo.