“As the entries for the 2009 World Press Photo contest start coming in, we are pleased to present the Joop Swart Masterclass, its protagonists and their work to all of you on our website. This year’s masterclass publication, Balance, the book, is now also available through our site.

Our web entry site 2009 awaits your photographs
The sooner you upload your entries for the 2009 World Press Photo competition, the better. An application developed especially for this purpose is now ready receive your photographs. It is easy to use and reliable, and there are no costs involved. You have a choice of languages: English, French, Portuguese or Spanish. Before you submit them you can save and edit your entries, which are automatically coded. The online entry site will stay open until the 2009 deadline, 15 January.

Jury chair: “Edit to impress”

MaryAnne Golon, chair of the 2009 jury, has this advice for the contestants: “We want to see work that is new, different and inspired. Be as brave in the preparation of your entries as you are with your photography. In the stories, tightly edited and intelligently sequenced images stand a far better chance of winning.” Click on this link to read more.

Two secretaries for the 2009 jury

The task of the jury secretary is a vital one. This is why Stephen Mayes, who performs this task in 2009 for the last time, will be using next year’s jury sessions to explain the routine to his successor, Daphné Anglès. As a result, the 2009 World Press Photo jury will have two secretaries.

15th Joop Swart Masterclass: also for non-participants

Our 15th masterclass, which had Balance as its theme, may have ended on 13 November, but on our website it is now open to all of you. Masters and participants freely share their knowledge and experience with photojournalists and other photography lovers all over the world.

Get to know the masterclass participants

What does it take to be one of the 12 participants selected for the masterclass from over 100 nominees? What do they have in common, and how are they different? How do they choose their subjects, and what are their long-term ambitions? These and other questions are discussed on our website in exclusive interviews with all of them. This is your chance to enter the world of a group of highly talented and committed photography professionals.

Steber’s lecture at a mouse click

Maggie Steber, one of the masters, has worked in more than 50 countries and her stories have appeared in prestigious titles like National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine. This year, she delivered the annual lecture that, as part of World Press Photo’s broad platform policy, is open to anyone who is interested. For over an hour she took the audience through her career, which is typified by an intense interest in the cultures and people of Africa and Haiti, Native Americans and science-oriented subjects. The lecture, including much of Steber’s photography, may be accessed on our website.

More masters’ voices

The guidance and views contributed by two other masters, Hugh Pinney and Ziv Koren, are not exclusively available to masterclass participants either. Pinney, who is director of photography for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Getty Images, and photojournalist Koren share the masterclass experience and their coaching of the participants with a wider audience in video interviews posted on our website.

Galleries now open

The 12 masterclass participants spent an entire day working in groups on the editing of their stories. At the end of that day, they all created their own tight edits. Check these out in the Balance galleries on our website.

Balance, the book

Though our website offers a wealth of information about the masterclass, we are well aware that many of you like nothing better than seeing quality images reproduced on the printed page. This is why we have added another hardcover volume to our masterclass publications. The 96 photo-filled pages of this year’s masterclass book show an extraordinary variety of styles, subjects and perceptions, from intimate essays to hard-edged documentary stories. The authors also explain the thinking behind the images. The collection of 12 photo stories, creatively told in words and pictures, costs € 15. Just go to our website to order your copy.