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Anna Lena Mehr

As Contest Director at the World Press Photo Foundation, Anna Lena is in charge of the annual photo contest that celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography of the last year. Born and raised in Berlin, Anna Lena moved to the Netherlands to study and holds an MSc cum laude in Communication Science. She then started her path at World Press Photo to manage contests, projects, and events, centered around recognizing the important work of documentary and news photographers around the world. As part of the new regional strategy that the organization launched in 2021, Anna Lena implemented a new contest model to give a platform to a more diverse representation of our world. The results of the photo contest are seen by over 2 billion people online when the winners are announced and by 4 million people in a traveling exhibition through over 100 countries every year.