X Edition 2026: Jury

Mariana Bazo

Perù

Photojournalist and documentary photographer, co-founder @fotografas_peru

Lack of safely managed water and sanitation is an equality issue. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poor water, sanitation and hygiene services and facilities. However, their voices and needs are often absent in the design and implementation of improvements, thereby ensuring their continued marginalization.

Adrees Latif

United States – Pakistan

Photojournalist and editor Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (credits ph : Alex Scott)

All people are entitled to water and sanitation without discrimination. Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked by, and sometimes face active discrimination from, those planning and governing water and sanitation improvements and services, and other service users.

Muhammed Muheisen

Jordan

Photojournalist and explorer
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner

Water is life. From my experience documenting stories in vulnerable areas around the world, I have seen firsthand how the lack of water causes suffering. I have witnessed how access to clean water restores dignity and hope.

Sarah Leen

United States

Photographer, photo editor and a teacher. First female Director of Photography of National Geographic magazine.

Sixty percent of the human body is composed of water. Without adequate clean water human survival, in fact all life on earth, is threatened. Water is indeed life, essential, beautiful, pleasurable and utterly precious.

Maxim Sergienko

Germany

Photo&videojournalist and Director of the Photography of “DER SPIEGEL online”

Women and girls usually have the responsibility of fetching water. This can be a dangerous, time-consuming and physically demanding task. Long journeys by foot, often more than once a day, can leave women and girls vulnerable to attack and often precludes them from school or earning an income.

Gaia Squarci

Italy

Photographer and videographer (credits ph: ©James Lattanzio)

To search for life beyond Earth, scientists “follow the water.” On our own planet, it is the foundation of biological life, and, in an age when almost no job can exist without data, it cools the servers that sustain our digital reality. It is also one of the most destructive forces we know. Photographically, the challenge of representing water lies in its multiformity and its presence at every conceivable scale. Its color shifts with the light it reflects, its shape with the mold that contains it, its power rests in perpetual movement. To visualize water is an attempt to distill its vastness, its force, its elusiveness, and its necessity into still images.

Paolo Troilo

Italy

The hyperrealist artist who paints with fingers. Art director

“We would all love to be suspended in a transparent world, to move with grace when it's not required, and most importantly, because it's not required. Water doesn't demand respect; it leaves us free to decide, and that deserves respect.”

Simone Bramante

Italy

Photographer and creative director

Just as water constantly changes shape, taking on multiple ‘faces’ depending on the container it’s poured into and the way it’s used, so too do the faces of those who come into contact with it transform—on a journey of growth toward a new future.

Jarrett Edmund

Canada

Photographer and writer

Water is life

Roberto Ridi

Elba Island - Italy

International photographer and visual storyteller of places and people

“The sea is what water means to me, a magnificent liquid, the sky's mirror. I live on an island, embraced by this immense element, changing, unstoppable, capable of instilling serenity but commanding respect, both gentle and mighty. From the transparency of the surface to its dark depths, it is like the human soul.”

Nathan Tsui

Hong Kong

Photographer and Photography Writer

Water is not only a fundamental human right, but also a vital resource that can lead to social conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and even wars. In recent years, climate change has triggered severe floods and droughts across the Asia-Pacific region, profoundly impacting communities and economies. As these challenges intensify, documentary photography and photojournalism serve as powerful tools to raise awareness and engage readers with these critical issues

SALVO GALANO

Italy

International portrait and travel photographer

Water is not just a natural resource, but a powerful magnifying lens through which gender inequalities can be observed. Where water is scarce, it is often women who pay the highest price; where it is accessible and flows freely, it can become a lever for empowerment. Photography, in this case, has both the task and the power to make this deep connection between water access and gender justice visible.

Georgina Goodwin

Kenya

Conservation Photographer and Visual Storyteller

Water is more than access, purity, or sanitation — it is the living force that binds people, wildlife, and ecosystems everywhere. When we connect to water, we remember our connection to one another and to the Earth itself. That conversation is foundational to sustainability, protection, and the future we all depend on.

Angela Jimu

Zimbabwe

Visual storyteller and Zimbabwe Associaton of Female Photographers co-director
(credits ph: Bon Msunje)

For women and girls, sanitation is about personal safety. Having to go to the toilet outside or sharing facilities with men and boys puts women and girls at increased risk of abuse and assault.

Paolo Ameli

Italy

Director and photographer

The right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.