The photos that won World Press Photo 2018, the world's most important photojournalism competition, were announced on the evening of 12 April by the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With the aim of recognising the photograph that, through technical skill and visual creativity, encapsulates and represents an event or theme of major journalistic importance from the previous year, the shot by photographer Ronaldo Schemidt, titled Venezuela crisis, was chosen as the photo of the year.

The crisis in Venezuela as World Press Photo of the Year 2018

In the winning photograph, taken on 3 May 2017, 28-year-old José Víctor Salazar Balza runs engulfed in flames during clashes with police at a protest against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. The mass protests in the country had been called by opposition leaders following moves made by the president to strengthen his own legislative power, and reached their peak on that very day, when demonstrators — most of them hooded and masked — began lighting fires and throwing stones. Schemidt's shot, commissioned by the photo agency Agence France-Presse, also won first prize in the Spot news, singles category. "The photo is symbolic. The man is wearing a mask and in the end he seems to represent not only himself going up in flames, but the idea of Venezuela burning," commented Whitney C. Johnson, jury member and deputy director of photography at National Geographic.

All the winning photos from World Press Photo 2018

World Press Photo of the Year. Venezuela Crisis, Ronaldo Schemidt © Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse/World Press Photo of the Year 2018

Contemporary issues, first prize singles. Lagos Waterfronts under Threat, Jesco Denzel © Jesco Denzel/World Press Photo of the Year 2018

First prize Contemporary issues, stories. Banned beauty, Heba Khami. The practice of breast ironing for girls between the ages of eight and 12 in Cameroon is carried out in the belief that this will delay maturity and help prevent rapes or sexual advances © Heba Khamis/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Environment, singles. Waiting for freedom, Neil Aldridg. A young white rhino, drugged and blindfolded, about to be released in Okavango Delta, Botswana, after its relocation from South Africa for protection from poachers © Neil Aldridge/World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Environment, singles. Attack of the Zombie Mouse, Thomas P. Peschak A juvenile gray-headed albatross on Marion Island, South African Antarctic Territory, is left injured after an attack by mice from an invasive species that has begun to feed on living albatross chicks and juveniles © Thomas P. Peschak/World Press Photo 2018

Third prize Environment, singles. Back in Time, Thomas P. Peschak. A historic photograph of an African penguin colony, taken in the late 1890s, is a stark contrast to the declining numbers seen in 2017 in the same location, on Halifax Island, Namibia. The colony once numbered more than 100,000 penguins. © Thomas P. Peschak/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Environment, stories. Wasteland, Kadir van Lohuizen. A man carries a load of PET bottles for recycling, at Olusosun landfill, Lagos, Nigeria. More than 3,000 tonnes of waste arrives at Olusosun daily. Upwards of 4,000 people, many of whom live on site, scavenge through the garbage by hand, collecting anything that is saleable or recyclable © Kadir van Lohuizen/World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Environment, stories. Hunger solutions, Luca Locatelli. A farmhouse, surrounded by greenhouses, in Westland, the Netherlands. The planet must produce more food in the next four decades than all farmers in history have harvested over the past 8,000 years © Luca Locatelli/World Press Photo 2018

Third prize Environment, stories. Amazon: Paradise Threatened, Daniel Beltra Scarlet ibises fly above flooded lowlands, near Bom Amigo, Amapá, Brazilian Amazon. © Daniel Beltra/World Press Photo 2018

First prize General news, singles. Rohingya Crisis, Patrick Brown The bodies of Rohingya refugees are laid out after the boat in which they were attempting to flee Myanmar capsized about eight kilometers off Inani Beach, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Around 100 people were on the boat before it capsized. There were 17 survivors © Patrick Brown/Panos Pictures for UNICEF/World Press Photo 2018

First prize General news, stories. The battle for Mosul, Ivor Prickett. Iraqi Special Forces soldiers survey the aftermath of an attack by an ISIS suicide car bomber, who managed to reach their lines in the Andalus neighborhood, one of the last areas to be liberated in eastern Mosul © Ivor Prickett/The New York Times/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Long-term project, stories. Ich Bin Waldviertel, Carla Kogelman Hannah and Alena are two sisters who live in Merkenbrechts, a bioenergy village of around 170 inhabitants in Waldviertel, an isolated rural area of Austria, near the Czech border © Carla Kogelman /The New York Times/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Nature, singles. Dumpster Diver, Corey Arnold A bald eagle feasts on meat scraps in the garbage bins of a supermarket in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, USA © Corey Arnold /World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Nature, singles. Galapagos: Rocking the Cradle, Thomas P. Peschak © Thomas P. Peschak/World Press Photo 2018

Third prize Nature, singles. Flying Fish in Motion, Michael Patrick O'Neill. A flying fish swims below the surface in the Gulf Stream late at night, offshore from Palm Beach, Florida, USA © Michael Patrick O'Neill/World press photo 2018

First prize Nature, stories. Warriors who once feared elephants now protect them © Ami Vitale/World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Environment, stories. Sacred no more, Jasper Doest. Tourists are entertained by macaques at the Utsunomiya Kayabukia Tavern, north of Tokyo, in a back room where visitors pay owner Kaoru Otsuka to cuddle the monkeys and take selfies. © Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2018

Third prize Nature, stories. Galapagos: Rocking the Cradle, Thomas P. Peschak. Four major ocean currents converge along the Galapagos archipelago, creating the conditions for an extraordinary diversity of animal life. The islands are home to at least 7,000 flora and fauna species, of which 97 percent of the reptiles, 80 percent of the land birds, 50 percent of the insects and 30 percent of the plants are endemic. © Thomas P. Peschak/World Press Photo 2018

First prize People, singles. Resignation Syndrome, Magnus Wennman Djeneta (right) has been bedridden and unresponsive for two-and-a-half years, and her sister Ibadeta for more than six months, with uppgivenhetssyndrom (resignation syndrome), in Horndal, Sweden. Djeneta and Ibadeta are Roma refugees, from Kosovo. © Magnus Wennman/World Press Photo 2018

First prize People, stories, and nominated for World Press Photo of the Year. Boko Haram strapped suicide bombs to them. Somehow these teenage girls survived, Adam Ferguson. Portraits of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, taken in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. The girls were strapped with explosives, and ordered to blow themselves up in crowded areas, but managed to escape and find help instead of detonating the bombs. © Adam Ferguson/The New York Times/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Spot news, stories. Massacre in Las Vegas, David Becker. A man in a wheelchair is pushed away from the grounds of the Route 91 country music festival in Las Vegas, USA, after a gunman opens fire on festival goers © David Becker/World press photo 2018

First prize Sport, singles. Royal Shrovetide Football, Oliver Scarff Members of opposing teams, the Up'ards and Down'ards, grapple for the ball during the historic, annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, UK © Oliver Scarff/World Press Photo 2018

First prize Sports, stories. Kid Jockeys, Alain Schroeder Young jockeys compete in a Maen Jaran horse race, on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. ©Alain Schroeder/World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Contemporary issues, singles. More than a woman, Giulio Di Sturco. Dr Suporn Watanyusakul shows patient Olivia Thomas her new vagina after gender reassignment surgery at a hospital in Chonburi, near Bangkok, Thailand © Giulio Di Sturco/World Press Photo 2018

Third prize Contemporary issues, singles. North Korea, Roger Turesson © World Press Photo 2018

Second prize Contemporary issues, stories. Feeding China, George Steinmetz © World Press Photo 2018

Second prize General news, singles. Not my verdict, Richard Tsong-Taatarii. John Thompson is embraced in St Anthony Village, Minnesota, USA, after speaking out at a memorial rally for his close friend Philando Castile, two days after police officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of all charges in the shooting of Castile. © Richard Tsong-Taatarii/World Press Photo 2018

Second prize General news, stories. Rohingya Refugees Flee Into Bangladesh to Escape Ethnic Cleansing © Kevin Frayer World Press Photo 2018