UNICEF Photo of the Year

The UNICEF Photo of the Year Award is given by UNICEF Germany to photographs and photo series that “best depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner”. Since 2000, the annual award has been given exclusively to professional photographers who have been recommended to UNICEF by internationally renowned photography experts. An independent jury selects the winner.
In December 2026, the prize was awarded ex aequo to two photographs for the first time. The winners were Avishag Shaar-Yashuv from Israel and Samar Abu Elouf from Palestine. Shaar-Yashuv portrayed children in a hotel who had survived the October 7 attacks, in 2023, including the winning picture of an eight-year-old boy, Stav. Abu Elouf, who works for the New York Times, portrayed the Palestinian siblings Darren and Kinan in a hospital in Qatar. Both were the only survivors of their family of Israeli air force bombings of residential areas in Gaza.

Winners

2000: „Rwanda: Country of the lost children“; Photographer: Matias Costa
2001: „Costa Rica: Siviani on the Sofa“; Photographer: Meredith Davenport
2002: „Liberia/Sierra Leone: Forgotten Refugees of the World“; Photographer: Jan Grarup
2003: „Honduras: Bound to El Norte“; Photographer: Don Bartletti
2004: „Sudan: Darfur in flame“; Photographer: Marcus Blaesdale
2005: „Ukraine: Street children in Odessa“; Photographer: David Gillanders
2006: „Pakistan: The Kashmir Earthquake“; Photographer: Jan Grarup
2007: „Afghanistan: Child brides“; Photographer: Stephanie Sinclair
2008: „Haiti: Surviving in Haiti“; Photographer: Alice Smeets
2009: „Tanzania: Deadly superstition“; Photographer: Johan Bävman
2010: „Vietnam: The legacy of war“; Photographer: Ed Kashi
2011: „Ghana: Waste export to Africa“; Photographer: Kai Löffelbein
2012: „Syria: Children between the lines“; Photographer: Alessio Romenzi
2013: „Syria: Syria's “forgotten” child victims“; Photographer: Niclas Hammarström
2014: „Philippines: Wanna have love!?“; Photographer: Insa Hagemann, Stefan Finger
2015: „Greece/North Macedonia: Utter despair“; Photographer: Georgi Licovski
2016: „Iran: Defending the right to smile“; Photographer: Arez Ghaderi
2017: „Syria: The face of a tormented childhood“; Photographer: Muhammed Muheisen
2018: „Togo: Every child matters“; Photographer: Antonio Aragón Renuncio
2019: „Philippines: Garbage, the Children and Death“; Photographer: Hartmut Schwarzbach
2020: „Greece: The flames of misery“; Photographer: Angelos Tzortzinis
2021: „India: Drowned hopes“; Photographer: Supratim Bhattacharjee
2022: „Tigray, Ethiopia: Taking Refuge in Books“; Photographer: Eduardo Soteras
2023: „Ukraine: Under the dark clouds of war“; Photographer: Patryk Jaracz
2024: ex aequo
* „Israel: The trauma of little Stav“; Photographer: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
* „Palestine: the drama of Dareen and Kinan “; Photographer: Samar Abu Elouf