World Press Photo Announces Joop Swart Masterclass Participants

World Press Photo named 12 young photographers who will participate in the 22nd edition of the Joop Swart Masterclass.

This year, the participants were selected from a competitive pool of 164 candidates, spanning 53 countries, nominated by 136 international experts.

They are: Eman Bedir Helal, Egypt; István Bielik, Hungary; Alejandro Cegarra, Venezuela; Victor Dragonetti, Brazil; Édouard Elias, France; Capucine Granier-Deferre, France; Noriko Hayashi, Japan; Arash Khamooshi, Iran; Evgeny Makarov, Germany; Guy Martin, United Kingdom; Wissam Nassar, Palestinian Territories; Christian Werner, Germany.

Photojournalist Édouard Elias, who was selected to participate in the masterclass in 2013 but was held captive in Syria while covering the conflict, was invited to return to the masterclass this year.

Established in 1994 and named after Joop Swart, one of the organization’s board members and an enthusiastic supporter of young talents, the masterclass aims to provide professional guidance to emerging photographers in the industry.

This year, the gathering will bring together the participants from diverse backgrounds and six of the industry’s prominent experts in early November, to share their creative insights and hold discussions based on a photo story the photographers will each prepare in advance, under the theme “Invisible.”

The judges included Rebecca McClelland, photo editor and curator, Paul Moakley, deputy director of photography and visual enterprise of TIME, Muhammed Muheisen, chief photographer of the Associated Press in Pakistan, Darcy Padilla, documentary photographer and lecturer, and Jim Casper, editor and publisher of Lens Culture.

“We saw a lot of portfolios this year that focused on urgent stories, investigative journalism and breaking news – work that followed a class approach in the tradition of great news photography,” Moakley said in a statement.