Out of nearly 100,000 entries, this photo of a gay couple in St. Petersburg, Russia, by Mads Nissen won the 2015 World Press Photo of the Year.Mads Nissen/The Associated Press
The list is in: World Press Photo has announced the winners of its 2015 photo contest with a push away from the strictly hard-news finalists of the past and a new emphasis on human storytelling.
"I saw this moment as a tipping point in photojournalism," said Donald Weber, a Canadian documentary photographer and one of seven photojournalists on the contest's final jury.
After combing through nearly 100,000 photo submissions from 131 countries, the judges narrowed down the world's best pieces of visual journalism on Thursday, including the winning image of a gay couple sharing an intimate moment in St. Petersburg, Russia, taken by Danish photographer Mads Nissen.
Mr. Weber – who judged alongside Michele McNally of The New York Times, Pamela Chen of Instagram, and former war photographer Patrick Baz of the Agence France-Presse – said this year's crop of winners, and the first-place photo in particular, cast a wider net in subject matter than previous years.
"For such a news-heavy year, the chosen photo was untraditional," he said. "It does not fit by any means into a traditional news photography category, but when you look at the story subject, it absolutely is highly relevant to today's society."
When selecting the finalists, the judges looked for images with universal themes that communicated far-reaching messages.
"The scope and scale of the jury [was] totally open," Mr. Weber said. "Our mantra going through the whole process was … really [about] trying to provoke discussion and debate about where we are within our own world, but also in a larger global context."
The winning photo, for example, does not just tell the story about LGTB rights in Russia, he said, but represents an issue that affects Canadians, as well.
"Specifically with the final photograph of the year, I truly do think that we did make a significant choice that will have resonance within our community, but more importantly, in the broader community."
Mr. Weber, who holds two World Press Photo awards himself, said the feedback he's received from social media, friends and colleagues so far is that the winning photos are surprising and emotional choices.
"A real push. … That's exactly what we were hoping for in terms of the response," he said.
Editor's note: Photographer Mads Nissen is Danish, not Dutch. A previous version of this article contained incorrect information.