These Are The Most Powerful Images of 2015

Photos have the power to transform scenes from faraway places into intimate, emotional moments we can connect to on a human level.

Each year, the World Press Photo Foundation selects some of the most powerful images that informed and inspired people around the world. This year's winners were selected from 82,951 entries made by 5,775 photographers hailing from 128 different countries, according to the foundation.

This year's winner, Australian freelance photojournalist Warren Richardson, captured one of the biggest humanitarian crises in modern history in his photo titled "Hope for a New Life."

The image is of a man carefully passing a baby between a barbed-wire fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border in August. The mass exodus of refugees and migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa and seeking better lives in Europe remains one of the biggest and most urgent stories of 2015 and today.

Ahead, more beautiful and arresting images from this year's contest.