[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272044404.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe World Press Photo foundation has awarded its top honor to Separated by ICE<\/em>, a harrowing image of two young girls clinging futilely to their father\u2019s shirt as he is detained. Taken by independent photojournalist Carol Guzy in a hallway of New York\u2019s Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, one of the few U.S. federal buildings where photography is permitted, the photograph has come to symbolize the human cost of President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n \n\tThe annual contest recognizes the most impactful photojournalism and documentary work produced over the past year: Separated by ICE<\/em>, shot for the Miami Herald<\/em> in August of 2025, was selected from 57,376 entries submitted by more than 3,000 photographers worldwide. According to the jury, Carol Guzy\u2019s image won for its visceral encapsulation of the Trump administration\u2019s controversial mass deportation effort, carried out by an emboldened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The photograph captures the moment Luis, from Ecuador, was detained after his immigration court hearing\u2014an ICE tactic widely decried by the ACLU as a bad-faith use of due process and as unnecessarily traumatizing for the families present.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA New York <\/em>report on ICE detainments at 26 Federal Plaza, which also featured images of the same family separation, described a scene in which agents mill around the building\u2019s immigration court with lists of targets\u2014asylum seekers who have appeared, willingly and, as the story put it, \u201cunwittingly,\u201d for court summonses. Rulings by judges appear to have little effect on who is arrested, and ICE has provided no explanation for how it determines who is allowed to leave the courthouse with a future hearing date.<\/p>\n \n\tSpeaking to the press, Luis\u2019s family has maintained that he had no criminal record.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNow more than ever, the media is a crucial link in documenting the effects of policy on real people at this pivotal time in America,\u201d Carol Guzy, a multi-time Pulitzer Prize winner, said in a statement to the World Press Photo foundation.<\/p>\n \n\tGuzy added, \u201cAgents stand outside courtrooms bearing photographs of their \u2018quote-unquote\u2019 targets. Traumatized children and spouses are caught in the crossfire, leaving broken families and a fearful immigrant community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTRAC Immigration reports that, as of April, more than 60,000 immigrants are currently held in detention nationwide, 70 percent of whom have no criminal conviction. This includes a soaring number of children, despite ICE\u2019s own rules against placing minors in holding facilities absent violent or unlawful behavior.<\/p>\n \n\tWorld Press Photo global jury chair Kira Pollack described Carol Guzy\u2019s winning image as \u201ca record of quite literally a disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis picture is chaotic, it\u2019s terrifying. It captures a very genuine expression of fear, terror, uncertainty, and powerlessness,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cIt allows us to look in. We cannot unsee it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/world-press-photo-of-the-year-depicts-family-torn-apart-ice-1234782436\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272044404.jpg?w=1024″] The World Press Photo foundation has awarded its top honor to Separated by ICE, a harrowing image of two young girls clinging futilely to their father\u2019s shirt as he is detained. Taken by independent photojournalist Carol Guzy in a hallway of New York\u2019s Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, one of the few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1899906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1899906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1899906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1899906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1899906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}