A pic­ture not only speaks a thou­sand words but has the abil­ity to leave you speech­less.

Cur­rently at the NZ Por­trait Gal­lery in Shed 11 on the water­front you can see a col­lec­tion of pho­tos that do exactly that. The pho­tos that make up the World Press Photo Exhib­i­tion are selec­ted from over 10,000 images that speak of the world we share with bil­lions of oth­ers, high­light­ing the dif­fer­ences and sim­il­ar­it­ies of the lives we live.

The world is an incred­ible place filled with beau­ti­ful, hor­rible and won­der­ful things and all if this is cap­tured in these pho­tos.

Damascus, Syria Rebels take cover amid flying debris and shrapnel, as a shell fired from a Syrian Army tank hits the wall above them.
Dam­as­cus, Syr­ia Rebels take cov­er amid fly­ing debris and shrapnel, as a shell fired from a Syr­i­an Army tank hits the wall above them. Pho­to­graph­er: Gor­an Toma­sevic
Bangui, Central African Republic. Demonstrators gather in the capital Bangui to protest following the killing of a judge by Séléka militia. Half an hour after this photo was taken, Séléka gunmen fired into the crowd, killing two people and wounding another. Photographer: William Daniels
Ban­gui, Cent­ral Afric­an Repub­lic. Demon­strat­ors gath­er in the cap­it­al Ban­gui to protest fol­low­ing the killing of a judge by Séléka mili­tia. Half an hour after this photo was taken, Séléka gun­men fired into the crowd, killing two people and wound­ing anoth­er. Pho­to­graph­er: Wil­li­am Daniels
Ramallah, West Bank A man bringing home a sheep for the Eid feast smokes a cigarette, as traffic finally clears at the Kalandia checkpoint. More than four million people live in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, often in overcrowded or deprived conditions. People’s movements are circumscribed and the threat of violence never quite goes away. Yet although the challenges of conflict and occupation overhang everyday life, people are not solely focused on the difficulties of survival. Photographer: Tanya Habjouqa
Ramal­lah, West Bank A man bring­ing home a sheep for the Eid feast smokes a cigar­ette, as traffic finally clears at the Kaland­ia check­point. More than four mil­lion people live in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jer­u­s­alem, often in over­crowded or deprived con­di­tions. People’s move­ments are cir­cum­scribed and the threat of viol­ence nev­er quite goes away. Yet although the chal­lenges of con­flict and occu­pa­tion over­hang every­day life, people are not solely focused on the dif­fi­culties of sur­viv­al. Pho­to­graph­er: Tan­ya Hab­jouqa

There is a won­der­ful app that you can down­load which enables you to not only share pho­tos that strike a chord but also find out more inform­a­tion about the pho­to­graph­er, the photo equip­ment used and more. It’s a great inter­act­ive ele­ment of the exhib­i­tion which would oth­er­wise be “only” a col­lec­tion of incred­ible pho­to­graphs.

In pre­vi­ous years I’ve left the exhib­i­tion feel­ing des­ol­ate and des­pond­ent. This year how­ever I felt more like I’d been lucky to see parts of the world and people’s lives in ways I had­n’t before. I had my eyes opened to the real­it­ies that oth­ers live and it was an extremely hum­bling exper­i­ence.

Conservationist and dive safety officer Ocean Ramsey surfaces while free diving off the coast of Haleiwa. Photographer: Donald Miralle
Con­ser­va­tion­ist and dive safety officer Ocean Ram­sey sur­faces while free diving off the coast of Halei­wa. Pho­to­graph­er: Don­ald Mir­alle

I highly recom­mend you get down and see this exhib­i­tion. It’s only $10 (cheap­er for stu­dents & con­ces­sions tick­ets) and gives you an in-depth his­tory les­son, des­pite cov­er­ing a brief time span, of the world we live in.

It’s on until 21st Septem­ber so you’ve only got two weeks to take it all in.