This year, a new and improved World Press Photo Multimedia contest awarded first, second and third prizes across three categories – Online Short, Online Feature and Interactive Documentary.  

Noor photographer Pep Bonet won first prize in the Online Short category with Into The Shadows, which explores the lives of immigrants in South Africa as they search for a better life. Arkasha Stevenson’s Living with a Secret, produced for the Los Angeles Times, came second, while Aleppo Battleground by Magnum Photos’ Jérôme Sessini for Le Monde was awarded third place. 

Jessica Dimmock and Stephanie Sinclair at VII Photo took first place in the Online Feature category with Too Young to Wed, a story about a young family in Ethiopia. Second place went to Liz O. Baylen for Dying for Relief, an intimate look at drug abuse and recovery produced for the Los Angeles Times, while Yang Enze took third place with Dreams on Freewheels, a story about China’s track cycling team, which competed at last year’s Paralympic Games. 

The final category, Interactive Documentary, saw Miquel Dewever-Plana and Isabelle Fougère win first prize for their piece Alma, a Tale of Violence, which explores the brutalities of the drug culture in Guatemala. Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison took second place with Bear 71, an interactive story told from the point of view of a female grizzly bear that features hundreds of ‘trail cam’ images of wildlife in the Rocky Mountains. Third prize went to NPR’s Claire O'Neill for her piece Lost and Found: Discover a Black-and-White Era in Full Color, which follows the story of photo historian Rich Remsberg, who discovers a collection of photographs by hobbyist photographer Charles W. Cushman. 

An honourable mention in this category went to Jake Price for his interactive documentary, Unknown Spring, which follows a community in Japan as they recover from 2011’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. 

Speaking as part of a webinar with members of the jury and journalists before the official announcement, jury chair Keith Jenkins said the panel was looking for “[examples of] great narrative storytelling with a strong visual element."

In a separate interview with BJP, Jenkins talked about the Interactive Documentary category, saying: “We were looking for unique stories that were told well. The trick with interactivity is that sometimes less is more. It’s a balance. The most interactive and over-the-top presentation may not be the one that wins; it’s a process of making the interactivity [work] with the content where appropriate, to help move you through the story.” He added: “The key to interactivity is to give the user a level of choice to go off and explore.”

Of Dimmock and Sinclair’s Too Young to Wed, Jenkins commented: “This wasn’t a stereotypical [portrayal] of young mothers in Africa trying to cope with the choices society has left them – it rose above that. It felt like a very universal story of a young family trying to survive. The visual shots of the main subject at the beginning were stark and striking, and you could see the emotion on the woman’s face. You could tell she felt comfortable with the photographers. At the end you wanted to find out what would happen to these people.” 

“Compelling storytelling” and “a sense of focus” were two of the key things the judges were looking for in entries. Pep Bonet’s Online Short Into The Shadows stood out precisely for these reasons, said Jenkins: “It is a really well-crafted piece, with compact storytelling. Visually it was one of the best pieces we saw. It made a seamless transition from photography to video and back again.”

To view all the winning productions click here