The Scottish Parliament is to host the World Press Photo (WPP) exhibition gallery from tomorrow (Friday 8) to Saturday 30 August 2008.

The World Press Photo exhibition is the result of a worldwide annual competition attracting entries from leading photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from across the globe. The free exhibition has attracted more than 70,000 visitors in its previous two years at Holyrood.

The Scottish Parliament's Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson MSP said: “We are delighted to welcome back the exhibition for a third year to our Main Hall. The thought provoking images always form an inspiring addition to the Festival of Politics and are extremely popular.

“Photojournalism will also feature prominently in our Festival of Politics line up this year with the winner of the Portraits category, Platon, discussing how he captures his award-winning images.”

As well as being the only Parliament to host the exhibition, Holyrood is also the only venue outside of Amsterdam to include three Apple iMacs - providing touch-screen interactive information on the winning photos, photographers and judging panel.

Amongst 2008's prize winning photojournalists, this year's overall winner is UK born Tim Hetherington, with his powerful image of an American soldier resting at a bunker in Afghanistan. Other UK winners include Vanessa Winship for her portrait of two girls living in rural Eastern Turkey, and Platon's portrait of Vladimir Putin, former President of the Russian Federation.

Stephen Mayes, secretary to the International Jury who has the role of managing the competition judging, said: “In looking at over 80,000 images submitted to this year's competition the judges sought to reward creative and effective journalism. Some images are challenging, others are metaphorical, but all of them add richness to our understanding of the world.”

The winning images were selected from 80,536 photographs submitted by 5019 professional photographers from 125 countries. The exhibition travels to 100 cities in 50 different countries and is now in its 51st year. The Parliament is once again one of only two locations in the United Kingdom and the only Parliament in the world to display the winning photos.

The exhibition forms part of this year's Festival of Politics. Now in its fourth year, the award winning festival runs from Wednesday 20 to Saturday 23 August and features twenty eight sessions many with famous faces from the world of politics, the arts and the media.

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