1st Place for Laurent Gilliéron at the Swiss Press Photo Awards in the "News" Category
With his powerful image of the landslide in Blatten, our photographer and Head of Visuals, Laurent Gilliéron, has won the title of News Image of the Year 2025.
A photograph of the landslide in Blatten (Valais) has secured first place in the "News" category of the 2026 Swiss Press Photo competition. The images across all six categories offer a diverse portrayal of life over the past year.
Laurent Gilliéron of the news agency Keystone-SDA won top honors in the News category with his piece "Blatten 2030," documenting the landslide in the Valais Lötschen Valley. His striking image shows two houses whose roofs rise like islands from the surface of a lake. At first glance, the smooth water conveys a deceptive calm, making the scene appear almost staged. Only upon closer inspection does the full extent of the destruction become apparent. The image was taken in September 2025, during the ceremonial groundbreaking for the «Blatten 2030» reconstruction project.
In this video, Laurent Gilliéron discusses how the photograph was captured.
Second and third places in this category were awarded to Flavia Leuenberger Ceppi (Le Temps) for her work on "Femicide" and Boris Müller for his coverage of the SVP Albisgüetli meeting (Zürcher Oberländer). First place in the "Daily Life" category went to Sabine Hess (NZZ Folio) for a feature on Charles Bonnet syndrome.
The top prize in the "Swiss Stories" category was won by Odile Meylan (24Heures) with "Le parc Jorat, la plus grande Forêt Périurbaine de Suisse." Joël Hunn took first place in the "Portrait" category with his images of Swiss author Peter Bichsel (NZZ am Sonntag Magazin).
The "Sports" category was a clean sweep for media outlets from French-speaking Switzerland. First place went to Gabriel Monnet (L'illustré) for "Lausanne en gymnersion," followed by Adrien Perritaz (L'illustré) in second and Sabine Papilloud (Le Nouvelliste) in third. The "World" category was led by Mario Heller (Republik) with the project "Fliessende Grenzen" (Fluid Borders).
The award ceremony will take place on April 24 at the Swiss Press Awards in Bern. During the event, the Swiss Press Photographer of the Year will also be named, with the six category winners nominated for the title. The Swiss Press Awards are presented by the Reinhardt von Graffenried Foundation.