On “Ties That Bind”

For seventy years, the World Press Photo Foundation has used photography as a medium to bring distant people, places, and events into our field of vision. What has been gathered since 1955, is not only a record of news stories, but also a history of the world written through the countless lives of people.

It is precisely for this reason that we have chosen, to present a special exhibition entitled “Ties That Bind” this year. We wanted, for a moment, to step away from the timeline of news—to take a few steps back, widen our perspective, and look through the winning photographs of the past to find the intimate human concerns that have persisted across time, cultures, and countries.

Family is where we first depend on others, where we are first held and cared for, and where we first learn what it means to love and be loved. These seem to be among our deepest expectations of family. Friendship, by contrast, is a relationship we actively choose and long for after leaving our family of origin. And community is perhaps where belonging begins: where strangers become willing to understand and care for one another, where an “I” begins to become a “we.” These three things—family, friendship, and community—have become especially urgent concerns for Taiwan today, and perhaps for the world as a whole.

In 2026, people aged 65 and over account for nearly 21% of Taiwan’s population, while the number of births has fallen to a historic low. For the first time, single-person households have surpassed 40% of all households, becoming the largest household type. Yes, the meaning of family is changing. As our population ages and more people live alone, might friendship become an increasingly important source of emotional belonging? How profoundly can friendships without blood ties shape the course of our lives? Beyond family and friendship, perhaps the thing reaching toward us, calling out and waving with all its might, is community.

In an age when our phones carry an endless stream of messages every day:

Are you more at ease—or more afraid?

Do you feel more grounded—or more empty?

Do you feel more loved—or are you finding it harder to find love?

Do you long to go home—or are you becoming less certain what home even means?

Do you have a friend who truly knows you?

Do you have a place where you feel you belong,

a place where your heart can finally relax?

These are the questions that “Ties That Bind” wishes to ask every person who walks through this exhibition.


https://www.garden91.org/en/world-press-photo/2026