Award-winning photos are on display at Folkart Gallery until Oct. 7

An exhibition of Anadolu Agency’s 2017 Istanbul Photo Awards contest that rewarded 22 photographers from 17 countries opened Thursday in Turkey's western Izmir province.

Attending the opening ceremony, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party's Izmir deputy Necip Kalkan praised the exhibition. 

The Folkart Gallery in Izmir will display the winning photographs from this year's Istanbul Photo Awards that saw around 25,000 entries in eight categories.

Twenty-two photographers from 17 countries received awards during the March contest sponsored by Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

French photographer Frederic Lafargue’s "Fleeing Daesh" was named Photo of the Year.

Aris Messinis’s series "Death in the Mediterranean" for Agence France-Presse won the News Series Award, while Adam Pretty's photo "Below the Surface" taken for Getty Images won the Sports Single Award.

Anadolu Agency Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Saban Kizildag said the photo contest was receiving more international appreciation each year.

Recalling that Istanbul and Ankara were also hosting the exhibition, Kizildag said the agency was planning to open two more exhibitions in New York and Moscow in the upcoming months. 

The exhibition in Izmir can be visited until Oct. 7.

For more photographs please visit;

http://istanbulphotoawards.com/Exhibitions.aspx

Winning images in 2017 contest also available at www.istanbulphotoawards.com

Anadolu Agency has published an album of the winning images in this year's "Istanbul Photo Awards 2017" that saw around 25,000 entries in eight categories.

Twenty-two photographers from 17 countries received awards at the March contest sponsored by Turkish Airlines and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

Winners were chosen between March 19-22 during a meeting in Central Anatolia’s historic Cappadocia region.

French photographer Frederic Lafargue’s Fleeing Daesh, which was named Photo of the Year, is the album cover.

Aris Messinis’s series Death in the Mediterranean for Agence France Presse, which won the News Series Award, and Adam Pretty's photo Below the Surface taken for Getty Images, which won the Sports Single Award, will also be included in the album.

Other winning photographs include Patrick Smith's Sports Series, Mary Gelman's images of victims of domestic violence, Kemal Jufri’s Feeding Orphaned Orangutans, Johnny Miller's series on Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course, and pictures of Street Training in Gaza taken by Hosam Salem -- a freelance photographer who took the Young Photojournalist Award for the first time in the contest's three-year history.

The photo album will be delivered to professional photographers both in Turkey and around the world.

It will also be available at www.istanbulphotoawards.com, the competition's official website.

Winning images to go on display in Izmir

An exhibition of the winning images will open in Turkey's western Izmir province on Sep. 7. The Folkart Gallery will display the images for a month.

Earlier, a total of 126 images were displayed in Istanbul and Ankara.

Anadolu Agency is also planning to open two more exhibitions in New York and Moscow in October.

Renowned photographer of wars in Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan, and Iraq had been battling liver cancer

Stanley Greene, an award-winning photojournalist for Amsterdam-based Noor Images, passed away Friday in Paris.

He had been undergoing treated for liver cancer. He was 68.

Ahmet Sel, the head of Anadolu Agency’s Visual News Department, said he had met Greene in the early 1990s in Moscow while covering the fall of the Soviet Union.

“I crossed paths with him a couple of years later in the mountains of Chechnya, which were then being bombarded by Russian forces," he added.

"I was quite impressed by his persistent optimism and the firm worldview reflected in his photos.”

Esra Kirecci, Anadolu Agency’s corporate communications director, said she met Greene at an Istanbul Photo Awards workshop. “He took part in our program and fascinated everybody with his sincerity and knowledge," she said.

"We felt as if he was the youngest person there despite his age and advanced illness. It was our pleasure to meet and work with him," she added.

Greene was in Istanbul this March for talks as part of Anadolu Agency’s third Istanbul Photo Awards.

Greene, one of the few African-American photographers who worked internationally, was known for honest photographs of wars, including conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Winning images on display at Cer Modern Arts Center until May 30

The second exhibition of photographs in Anadolu Agency’s 2017 Istanbul Photo Awards that honored 22 photographers from 17 countries opened here Thursday.

Anadolu Agency's Deputy Director-General Mustafa Ozkaya touted the awards expansion in a short period and said he hoped to see more growth in the coming years.

"We are pleased to see that the Istanbul Photo Awards have now gone beyond the agency to become a Turkish brand and I hope that together we will all see even more important developments in the years to come,” he said during opening ceremonies at the CerModern Arts Centre.

Ozkaya said a third exhibition would be held in Moscow and the UN headquarters in New York in the fall.

The agency's Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel said the awards have grown into one of the most prestigious and significant photo contests since it began just three years ago.

News categories were added to the competition as it garnered more attention each year, according to Sel.

"This year we have portrait and nature-environment category which we didn’t have last year. Next year, we will add a Daily Life category,” he said.

Frederic Lafargue's image, Fleeing from Daesh, that was named Photo of the Year, is among the photographs on display.

For the first time in the contest's history, Hosam Salem, a freelance photojournalist in Gaza, received the Young Photojournalist Award for Street Training in Gaza. The new award is given to a winner younger than 28 years of age.

Winners were chosen March 19-22 during a special meeting in Central Anatolia’s historic Cappadocia region, and included Aris Messinis' series, Death in the Mediterranean, for Agence France Presse (AFP) that took the News Series Award; Adam Pretty’s, Below the Surface taken for Getty Images won the Sports Single Award, while Patrick Smith received the Sports Series Award.

Mary Gelman won the top prize in the Portrait-Multiple category for her images of domestic violence victims. There was no winner in the Portrait-Single category.

Kemal Jufri’s Feeding Orphaned Orangutans won the Nature-Environment Story Award, while Johnny Miller's Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course photo series took home the Nature-Environment Single Award.

A total of $133,000 was awarded in eight separate categories, in addition to $3,000 for the Young Photojournalist Award and a separate $10,000 Photo of the Year Award.

The 126 images will be on display at the CerModern Arts Center until May 30. The exhibition was previously displayed in Istanbul April 2-16.

The awards are sponsored by Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency (TIKA).

For more photographs of the exhibiton please visit;

http://istanbulphotoawards.com/Exhibitions.aspx