Local Testimony 2026

The annual Israeli press and documentary photography exhibition, founded in 2003 and shown each year at MUZA — Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, in parallel with World Press Photo. The 2026 contest opens on 13 August and closes at midnight on 31 August. Single images may be entered in six fields — News (open only to holders of a GPO or Israeli Journalists Union press card), Religion and Faith, Society and Community, Urbanism and Culture, Sport, and Nature and Environment — up to ten photographs per field. Alongside singles there are three other formats: short series (up to four series of four to six photographs each, no press card required), Long Exposure (a documentary story built over more than a year, ten to fifteen photographs, at least three from the past year), and video works up to seven minutes made in 2025–2026. The curator of the 2026 edition is Ilia Yefimovich, a documentary maker and AFP staff photographer. Entry is free. Grants totalling 30,000 NIS are split equally between Photo of the Year (the Roi Idan Prize, given by the Israeli Journalists Union), Series of the Year, and Video Work of the Year — the last a production grant from Shomrim, the Center for Media and Democracy, dedicated to making a new video work with the Shomrim newsroom for the 2027 exhibition. Every photographer in the exhibition receives the catalogue and a certificate of participation.