The 2015 World Press Photo Exhibition opens at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 5 November 2015.

The premier annual international competition in press photography, the 2015 World Press Photo Exhibition brings together award-winning photographs from around the world which capture the most powerful and moving images of the year. The winning images were selected from 97,912 photographs entered by 5,692 photographers from 131 different countries.

Exhibited in more than 90 cities in 45 countries, the World Press Photo 15 Exhibition is an opportunity to see the winning images from each of the nine contest categories that include contemporary issues, daily life, nature and sports. Subject matters include images of events that have resonated around the world including the conflicts in Eastern Ukraine; the aftermath of bombing in Gaza; the ebola crisis in Sierra Leone; refugees and the abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria.

The exhibition includes this year’s winning World Press Photo of the Year by Danish photographer Mads Nissen. The image which shows Jon and Alex comes from the photographer’s project called “Homophobia in Russia”. This story is about how “being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) is becoming more and more difficult in Russia as sexual minorities are facing legal and social discrimination, harassment and even violent ‘hate crime’ attacks from religious and national conservative groups.”

This year also saw UK photographer Mark Metcalfe of Getty Images win a third prize in the category Sports Singles with his gripping picture titled “63 Not Out”, showing members of the New South Wales team assist batsman Phillip Hughes of the opposing South Australia team, after he was struck by a ball during a cricket match in Sydney, on 25 November. Ireland’s Kieran Doherty was given first prize in Sports Stories for his reportage of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships photographed from the point of view of Grounds Admission pass holders.

Jury chair Michele McNally, director of photography and assistant managing editor of The New York Times, said: “It is an historic time for the image… the winning image needs to be aesthetic, to have impact, and to have the potential to become iconic. This photo is aesthetically powerful, and it has humanity.”