Anadolu Agency’s Istanbul Photo Awards’ first exhibition opens in Istanbul with participation of this year’s winner

The first exhibition of Anadolu Agency’s Istanbul Photo Awards 2018 opened on 3 May in Turkey's largest city with the participation of this year’s winner Damir Sagolj, a Bosnian photojournalist.

All the winning photographs of Istanbul Photo Awards 2018 are displayed at Maksem Cumhuriyet Art Gallery in Istanbul’s teeming Beyoglu district.

Speaking ahead of the opening ceremony, Anadolu Agency’s visual news editor-in-chief Ahmet Sel said that although it is only the contest’s fourth year, the number of participants has already increased and those joining the contest were some of the best photojournalists in the world.

“Both the prestige and the recognition of this competition, which our agency has organized, have reached a very high point in a short period,” Sel said.

Sel described the photojournalism as one of the most difficult professions in the media sector, and said most of the time these people risk their lives to carry out their jobs.

“[Photojournalism] requires a very serious devotion and special talent because we have to convey to the audience some items that contain emotions, aesthetes and information,” he added.

Commenting on this year’s winning photo, Sel said the photo is about Rohingya Muslims’ tragedy who were fleeing to Bangladesh from restive Rakhine state of Myanmar.  

Exhibition open to visitors until May 15

Since August last year, more than 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fled their homeland amid a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar security forces, according to the Amnesty International.

Although it is a photo of a child who lost his life, Sel said, the picture focuses on emotions and giving information about a fact.

“At the moment when the child’s life ends, covering his eyes with tree leaves, which are the symbols of life, gave a different dimension to the photo,” he added.

Istanbul Mayor Mevlut Uysal also addressed the visitors at the ceremony.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until May 15.

A selection from the winning photographs can also be visited simultaneously in Taksim Metro Station during the exhibition.

The contest received 37,000 applications from 125 countries and the international jury rewarded 27 photographers from 22 countries in single and story categories of news, sports, portrait, nature & environment and daily life.

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Turkish Airlines and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) are sponsors of the contest.

All winning photographs will be exhibited at Maksem Cumhuriyet Art Gallery in Taksim

The first exhibition of Anadolu Agency’s Istanbul Photo Awards 2018 will open in the port city on Thursday.

All winning photographs of the Istanbul Photo Awards 2018 will be exhibited at the Maksem Cumhuriyet Art Gallery, which is more than 250 years old, located at the center of Taksim in Istanbul.

The exhibition will remain open until May 15. The selection of winning photographs would also be displayed simultaneously at the Taksim Metro Station during the exhibition.

Reuters photojournalist Damir Sagolj’s striking shot of a dead boy has been chosen as Photo of the Year 2018.

The contest had received 37,000 applications from 125 countries in the contest; the international jury rewarded 27 photographers from 22 countries in the categories of news, sports, portrait, nature and environment, and daily life.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Turkish Airlines and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) sponsored the contest.

Bosnian photojournalist Damir Sagolj’s striking shot of a dead boy, his eyes covered with leaves, was chosen Photo of the Year 2018 in the Istanbul Photo Awards. Titled “Boy,” the photo was taken at a refugee camp in Bangladesh for Reuters.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Jury President Marion Mertens, who is the senior digital editor at Paris Match magazine, said this year’s winner was “really strong”.
“It is a picture that explains a lot about what the big story of the year was,” Mertens said.
“It is a very moving picture while it is also a very strong picture,” she said, adding that the Istanbul Photo Awards are about being able to “have strength and emotion at the same time in photography”.
A jury member, Michel Scotto, the director of photobusiness development at Agence France-Presse, said the jury was “more or less agreed on the winner”.
On the winner this year, Scotto said: “There was no real discussion; we know it stands out from the rest of pictures that were represented.”
Georges DeKeerle, photographer and visual media adviser, said this year’s winner was “one of the best winners that I have seen”.
DeKeerle describes this year’s winner as “a picture that doesn’t need a caption. It is a picture that tells the story without being in your face”.
Another jury member Cameron Spencer is an award-winning chief photographer at Getty Images based in Sydney, Australia.
- 'Great exposure for photographers'
Spencer said that this year’s winner “deserves to be the winner and the whole jury was onboard with the decision.”
According to Spencer, the Istanbul Photo Awards is important as it gives journalists from around the world a platform to show their works across the world via exhibits.
“The Istanbul Photo Awards travels around the world, different cities, and it is great exposure for photographers,” he said.
Nearly 37,000 photographs from 125 countries competed for this year's prize.
Canadian photojournalist Kevin Frayer won the first prize in the Story News category for his series on the Rohingya he did for Getty Images.
Lukas Schulze, a freelance photojournalist based in Germany, got first prize in the Single Sports category with his photo “Athlete vs. Animal,” while Pavel Volkov from Russia won first prize in the Story Sports category for his series taken for Russian daily Vechernyaya Moskva.
Malaysian photojournalist Muhamed Fathil Asri from The New Straits Times Press won first prize in the Single Nature & Environment category, while Marcus Yam’s work for The Los Angeles Times was awarded first prize in the Story, Nature & Environment category.
Andrew McConnell’s series taken for London-based Panos Pictures won first prize in the Story Portrait category, while Russian photographer Sergei Stroitelev got first prize in the Story Daily Life category.
Ezra Acayan, a freelance photojournalist in the Philippines, won the Young Photographer award, given for the second time to a winner under age 28.
This year’s jury they gave Honorable Mentions to Rodrigo Cabrita in the Story, Nature & Environment category and to Anastasia Rudenko in the Story Daily Life category.
For a list of all the winners, visit: http://istanbulphotoawards.com/
The winning photos will be compiled in an annual book and will be shown at exhibits in Turkey and abroad throughout the year.

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