World Press Photo 2018 - A Planet On Edge

This year's winning images are indicative of a world creeping towards its breaking point. They tell stories of people erupting into protest against corrupt governance, of dwindling species at the mercy of human excess, and of lives once broken, slowly coming together again. Yet, there is a sliver of hope. Tales of joy and innocence manage to shine through the cracks, making for surprising and even comforting victors.

First Prize

Ronaldo Schemidt, Venezuela Agence France Presse

Venezuela Crisis: José Víctor Salazar Balza (28) catches fire amid violent clashes with riot police, during a protest against President Nicolás Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. President Maduro had announced plans to revise Venezuela’s democratic system by forming a constituent assembly to replace the opposition-led National Assembly, in effect consolidating legislative powers for himself. Opposition leaders called for mass protests to demand early presidential elections. Clashes between protesters and the Venezuelan national guard broke out on 3 May, with protesters (many of whom wore hoods, masks or gas masks) lighting fires and hurling stones. Salazar was set alight when the gas tank of a motorbike exploded. He survived the incident with first and second-degree burns.

Second Prize

Ryan Kelly, United States The Daily Progress

Car Attack: People are thrown into the air as a car plows into a group of protesters demonstrating against a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. The white nationalist rally, opposing city plans to remove a statue of Confederate icon General Robert E Lee, attracted counter-protests. James Alex Fields Jr drove his car at high speed into a sedan, propelling it and a minivan into a group of anti-racist protesters, killing Heather Heyer (32) and injuring a further 19 people. Fields fled the scene in his own vehicle, but was stopped by Charlottesville police and later charged with murder.

First Prize

David Becker, United States