The World Press Photo contest is the one of the most important photojournalism events of the year, together with the Visa Pour l'Image professional week in September in Perpignan. This year it's the contest's 52nd occurrence. The World Press Photo winner will see his or her iconic image published in hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the world. The categories' winners and runner-ups will also benefit from the extra exposure. A good example of that phenomenon is Vanessa Winship, who after winning the Portraits, Series category went on to receive the Sony World Photography Awards and have her Sweet Nothing images exhibited at the Photographers' Gallery and Host in London.

This year's results are expected to start coming in at 10am (London Time). Follow our Twitter feed here and this blog for live updates and the winning photos.

Chen Qinggang a Chinese photographer for the Hangzhou Daily newspaper has won the Spot News Single category for his image of rescue troops carrying an earthquake survivor in the Beichuan County on 14 May.

The picture shows an armed officer moving through a home in Cleveland, Ohio, following eviction as a result of mortgage foreclosure.

UPDATE: Here is the series of images Suau shot for Time magazine. It's worth a look.

Time magazine initially commissioned Anthony Suau’s series shot in Cleveland, one of which won this year's World Press Photo of the Year title. However, the US publication only published two of his images, choosing to put the entire series online on its website. However, European publications picked up the work. Speaking to BJP on Friday, just after he won the World Press Photo of the Year title, Suau said that French magazine Le Monde 2 had done the best work with his images.

We spoke with Laura Schmid, Le Monde 2’s picture editor about Suau’s work.
‘We first wanted to publish Anthony’s work in March last year in a special issue dedicated to the US. We had a large article that explained the issues facing the US and it started with Cleveland. But since the article didn’t focus solely on Cleveland we didn’t use Anthony’s images,’ she said. ‘Then we saw that Time only used two images by Anthony’s and had decided to start the photo essay with an image of the Chigago Mercantile Exchange. I was intrigued. Time really helped him, he had real support from the magazine, but I was astonished they didn’t publish the entire essay.’

Le Monde 2 decided to pick up Suau’s images later that year.

‘In September, after the crisis really hit, we wanted to take a different approach than other magazines who focussed too much on Wall Street and its traders,’ Schmid added. ‘We wanted to focus on the people realy affected by the crisis. You can say anything with the picture of a stock trader. Showing these images has no human value.’

They were finally published in Le Monde 2’s 04 October 2008 issue.

‘What I found extraordinary was this cop going into these houses like a snipper. It’s breathtaking. This could happen to any of us, we could be the next ones evicted. It’s these images that speak to people. I’m very happy he won the World Press Photo.’