The best Swiss press photos of 2025

An unusual image in the context of a competition for press photos. Nevertheless, this photograph from a series on the problems of agriculture with the use of fertilisers and toxic substances was awarded first prize in the "Swiss Stories" category. Rahel Zuber

These are the winners of the "Swiss Press Photo" competition 2025 in six categories.

Press photos usually refer directly to an event, to irrefutable facts. The photographers set out and go to where something is happening, where there is something to report or perhaps even where history is being made.

When Taylor Swift comes to Switzerland in the middle of summer to give a concert, it is such a topical event. Countless publications, concert and experience reports have paid homage to the American pop star.

Photographer Anne Morgenstern, however, stayed away from the actual venue and photographed the young fans as they prepared for the concert in the sheltered setting of a club. She thus created a series of images that document an almost religious frenzy.

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1. Prize News: Young Taylor Swift fans before a concert. Anne Morgenstern, Insta: @Annemorgensternphoto

3. Prize News: A Ukrainian peace conference in Switzerland. Keystone / Michael Buholzer

3. Prize News: A Ukrainian peace conference in Switzerland. Keystone / Michael Buholzer

2. Prize Daily Life: A guest worker at home. Annick Ramp Nzz.ch

1. Prize International: A mother and daughter in Yemen. Nzz Dominic Nahr

1. Prize International: Two boys in Yemen. Nzz Dominic Nahr

3. Prize Daily Life: At the Swiss Dog Show. Boris Müller

2. Prize News: A peaceful farmers’ demo. Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

3. Prize Swiss story: The Vaudois “abbeys” are shooting clubs and shooting competitions whose tradition dates back to the Middle Ages. Women often take on the role of lady of honour in these brotherhoods and the shooting kings are male. But the Abbaye des Nobles Coeurs has been mixed-gender since 1990. 24Heures / Marie-Lou Dumauthioz

3. Prize Sport: Figure skaters from all over Switzerland compete against each other. Katja Schmidlin

1. Prize Sport: Cycling World Championships Zurich. The Cycling and Para-Cycling World Championships attracted many fans to the city, and the racers could count on great support along the route. Schweizer Illustrierte Joseph Khakshouri

1. Prize Swiss Stories: The analogue images show various agricultural sites in canton Zurich. The films were soaked in liquid fertiliser or pesticides before being developed. The resulting traces are intended to point out that despite strict environmental standards, nutrient concentrations in our waters are often too high. Rahel Zuber

2. Prize Swiss Stories: Nemo’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland resulted in fame beyond Swiss borders. The media report on the subsequent concerts that Nemo gives, for example on the Gurten in Bern or in Solothurn. Nemo is also accompanied backstage. Jonathan Labusch, All Rights Reserved, Instagram: @Jo

2. Prize Swiss Stories: Nemo’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland resulted in fame beyond Swiss borders. The media report on the subsequent concerts that Nemo gives, for example on the Gurten in Bern or in Solothurn. Nemo is also accompanied backstage. Jonathan Labusch, All Rights Reserved, Instagram: @Jo

2. Prize International: Argentinian President Javier Milei has cancelled a programme to prevent teenage pregnancies. This also affects Micaela from Buenos Aires. She became pregnant for the first time at the age of 15 and for the second time at 17. Tiziana Amico

1. Prize Portrait: Noémi Speiser is 97 and is regarded as a luminary in her specialist field, textile science. Basler Zeitung / Kostas Maros

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Two photographers from the Keystone agency provide a somewhat different kind of topicality. Alessandro della Valle took pictures of a large rally of Swiss farmers demonstrating with 650 tractors in favour of fair prices for their produce.

Michael Buholzer captured a completely different event on the Bürgenstock: the stage there was filled with international state guests centred on Volodymyr Zelensky.

Between them was a picture that stands alone and won first prize in the portrait category. The photograph by Kostas Maros from Basel shows the 97-year-old and internationally renowned textile scientist Noémi Speiser.

The self-confident woman looks directly into the photographer’s camera and insists – contrary to all social developments of the past decades – on still being addressed as Fräulein.

3. Prize. There are numerous hair clinics in Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands of men travel here to have hair loss treated. The photographer accompanied some of them on their journey for the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’. Mario Heller

Annick Ramp has worked for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for many years. An unspectacular story led her to the residents of four houses that were built for guest workers in the city of Zurich in 1965. she called the series “A life in the provisional”.

Photographer Boris Müller visited the Swiss Dog Show in Lucerne, a venue that is also about relationships. Ambition, beauty, obedience and competition result here in pictures.

Photographer Dominic Nahr, who travelled to Yemen on behalf of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, won first prize in the “Abroad” category. Particularly impressive is a picture from his series showing a young woman with her mother in the waiting room of a clinic.

The mother holds the crutches protectively between herself and the photographer, while her daughter, lost in thought, stands nearby with a freshly fitted prosthetic leg.

The main prize for photography at the Swiss Press Awards will be announced later in April. This is financed and awarded every year by the Fondation Reinhardt von Graffenried.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Translated from German by DeepL/ts