The best photos of the World Press Photo contest 2021

The most prestigious annual award for photojournalists presented a short-list of applicants. Two Russian photographer compete in the main nomination "photo of the year" — Valery Melnikov with the "Leaving the house in Nagorno Karabakh", which depicts an Armenian family with a small child, and Oleg Ponomarev with a portrait of transgender men "Transition: Ignat". Look at the work of the nominees in our gallery.

Nurse adriana Silva da Costa Souza hugs 85-year-old Rose Lunardi of Luzia, a resident of a nursing home in the Brazilian state of são Paulo (winner)

On the demolition of the memorial insisted the activists of Black Lives Matter (BLM). They also advocated for the dismantling of the monument to the forces of the confederates in the Civil war North and South. According to representatives of the movement, such monuments remind us of the history of oppression in the country. The memorial's defenders say the demolition will lead to the rewriting of history

About 18 hours on 4 August in a warehouse in the Lebanese port of exploded party with more than 2.7 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate high density. Near the warehouse, there were about 100 thousand people. Because of the explosion were damaged or destroyed 6 million homes, 190 people died, 6 million were injured, and 300 thousand, the authorities had to relocate

Henry Lanasa, the head of the settlement Archers Post in the Kenyan Samburu County, April 24, is trying to scare away a swarm of locusts, a devastating pastures.

In the beginning of 2020 Kenya has experienced the most severe plague of locusts in 70 years. Swarms of insects migrated to Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. Desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, is one of the most destructive.

Flock size of Paris can destroy the same amount of food per day, as half of the population of France. Even before the locust plague of almost 20 million people in East Africa suffer from lack of food. The subsequent quarantine in connection with the coronavirus worsened the situation, because had disrupted the supply chain of pesticides

The photo shows the head with his girlfriend Maria in Saint Petersburg. School Ignat went to a psychologist and said that has problems with identity and speaks of himself in the masculine gender. The psychologist has not kept talking in secret about the content learned the whole school, and over Ignat scoffed.

In Russia, transgender people face discrimination and hardships at the legislative level. For example, to change the gender marker on legal documents, they need to pass the examination by mental health professionals, to obtain a medical certificate confirming hormonal and/or surgical correction of the floor, and then contact the Registrar's office.

Now MPs are preparing a package of bills aimed at "strengthening of the family institution", which further restrict transgender people's rights

Azat Gevorgyan and his wife Antik 28 Nov before you leave your home in Lachin. Many Armenians fled the given control of the Azerbaijani authorities. After the second war in Nagorno-Karabakh Lachin was the last of the three abandoned Armenia

Valery Melnikov nominated for the award in three categories: "top news/Series" (General News/Stories), "Story of the year" (World Press Photo Story) and "photo of the year" (World Press Photo of the Year).

Suffering from cancer metastases 24-year-old Marion hugs his seven year old son Ethan in the presence of Peyo — horses involved in the program assisted therapy with animals. Department of palliative care, "Selenium" in the Central hospital, Calais, France

Fatima and her son are preparing the fishing net in the Gulf Chorus of Amara, Yemen. The conflict between the Shiite Houthis and the coalition of Sunnis, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, lasts from 2014. By the beginning of 2020, approximately 20.1 million residents of Yemen was in need of food aid

Sleep in the trenches the soldiers, Armenia. In the fall of 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out again the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The war lasted from 27 September to 9 November, and in fact ended with the victory of the Azerbaijani side. The Armenians were forced to leave much of the territory of Karabakh

Annually in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) shoot seven to ten feature films. For this local film industry, dubbed "Shavuot". Make movies in different genres — from romantic comedies to crime dramas. Most of the films in the Yakut language with Russian subtitles

From 2014 to 2017 in the region traditionally inhabited by Yazidis from the mountain range of Sinjar in Northern Iraq acted mode of the banned in Russia "Islamic state" (ISIS). Its territory was practiced slavery, men, women and children were sold: the slave was worth $ 50, child — 35. According to the AP in may 2020, freed from slavery 3,500 people, fate still remains unknown 2900

The photographs of the buildings in the quarter Shiv Cowlick in the North-East Indian Delhi on March 3, a few days after the end of the inter-religious riots. They began amid the exclusion of Muslims from the National register of citizens of India. This happened on the initiative of the ruling party "of the Bharatiya Janata", which represents the Hindu

A Buddhist temple is one part of the mountain, while the other cleared technology for the extraction of jade in Hpakant, the Kachin state, Myanmar

During the quarantine, nature reserves often visited local travelers. Wearing masks and gloves in the open air was required, so the reserved seats were littered with such items. According to the World Animal Protection, plastic waste lead to the death of about 136 thousand seals, sea lions and whales annually

With a decrease in the amount of snow in the Himalayas and the melting of glaciers community in the region of Ladakh in Northern India are building a huge artificial cones of ice, resembling a Buddhist stupa, to be provided with water in the summer. Such ice stupa accumulate the winter melt water and slowly release it in the spring when you need it for agriculture

Almost a third region of the Brazilian Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetlands and flooded meadows in size from 140 to 160 thousand square kilometers destroyed by fire in 2020

A woman collects drinking water from the cloth, set for collecting the morning dew, in the village Calabogie, in the mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

The body of the dead from the coronavirus in the Indonesian hospital

Women mourn the death of major General Qassem Soleimani at a memorial service in Tehran, Iran, January 4

Switzerland closed state border for the first time since the Second world war. The inhabitants of the cities Rien Kreuzlingen and used freely travel to Germany, but because of the pandemic, it has become impossible

Rothschild's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) deliver to a safe place on a specially constructed barge with the sunken island of Logicore on lake Baringo in Western Kenya

The Taal volcano in the province of Batangas, on the Philippine island of Luzon began erupting on January 12, throwing ash to heights of up to 14 kilometers. This was accompanied by palpalani and volcanic thunderstorms that forced residents to evacuate from the surrounding area

According to the project of the Small Arms Survey, half of all firearms in the world belonging to private individuals for non-military purposes, is located in USA. The number of weapons exceeds the population of the country: 393 million weapons on 328 million people

Summer military camps are offered for children in Poland since 1920‑ies. Children undergo physical and psychological tests at military sites, they learn tactical maneuvers, survival, self-defence and topography, as well as shooting with air rifles, and sometimes copies of real weapons

Father teaches his ten year old daughter Xenia with autism, launch a toy airplane in Moscow, Russia

George climbs on a pile of logs while training for bouldering in Kochel am see, Bavaria, Germany

Master decathlon 87-year-old Pat Norton is training at home in nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, during the lockdown due to coronavirus pandemie

Dutch rider Dylan Groenewegen (left) gets into an accident for a few meters before the finish because of a collision with another team member Fabio Jacobsen in the first stage of the Tour of Poland in Polish Katowice

Team player American football Flint Jaguars Dana Holmes leaves the locker room to warm up, flint, Michigan, USA. Flint — a depressed town, experiencing the Exodus of the crisis, the auto industry, rampant poverty and food supply problems

Bridge club in the Swedish Borlange consist of 100 people. Due to pandemic of the coronavirus, they were forced to stop playing. But in the summer the solution was found by players just separated from each other through screens of Plexiglas

Said Ramin was a professional traceur until he damaged a spinal nerve in the neck. After the injury, he could only blink, doctors thought that it would be impossible to even sit in a wheelchair. But after years of rehabilitation, he returned to the mobility in their hands. Now he can drive his wheelchair

Child locked in a car near a forest fire in Oliveira de Frades, Portugal

In mid-November 2020 Peru experienced the most serious political instability over the past 20 years of history. For the week, the country had three presidents, which led to riots across the country