Exhibition consists of 30 photographs selected by jury of international professionals

Anadolu Agency opened on Tuesday the first exhibition of photographs featured at the recently-held Istanbul Photo Awards 2016.

The exhibition consists of 30 photographs selected by a jury of international professionals for the Second Istanbul Photo Awards.

Bringing together pictures that depict key events from around the world, the display will be open until May 1.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Anadolu Agency’s deputy Director General and Editor-in-Chief Metin Mutanoglu said that most photographs featured at the competition were about the ongoing war in Syria.

“As the voice of this region, Anadolu Agency makes its presence felt in the international arena with this competition,” Mutanoglu said.

He added that a photograph showing the desperation of a child in a Syrian hospital was the best way to explain to the whole world about the situation in the war-torn country.

Anadolu Agency Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel said the exhibition will be held in other Turkish cities as well as other countries.

Sel said the photographs in the exhibition depicted key stories affecting the world today, including the ongoing clashes in the Syrian city of Aleppo, refugees crossing the Aegean Sea, the east Ukraine conflict and sports-related events.

Among the jury members of Istanbul Photo Awards 2016 were Shanghai Center of Photography Director Liu Heung Shing, Getty Images executive Georges De Keerle, AFP Photo Business Development Director Michel Scotto as well as Guillaume Herbaut, a World Press Photo prizewinner.

An image of refugees taken by Russian photojournalist Sergey Ponomarev, which had won an award at the Istanbul Photo Awards, later also won the Pulitzer Prize this year.

Ponomarev’s image had captured the struggle of Syrian refugees for The New York Times. He won the Photo of the Year 2016 award at the Anadolu Agency-organized competition in the Single News category. 

For more photographs please visit; http://istanbulphotoawards.com/Exhibitions.aspx#

Russian photojournalist, recognized first for his picture of Syrian refugees at AA-organized awards, now also wins Pulitzer

The same image of refugees that won a prize for Russian photojournalist Sergey Ponomarev at the Istanbul Photo Awards has now also won the Pulitzer Prize.

Ponomarev’s image had captured the struggle of Syrian refugees for The New York Times. He won the Photo of the Year 2016 award at the Anadolu Agency-organized competition for Single News in March this year.

The Pulitzer board announced Monday that Ponomarev had won the Pulitzer for the same photo.

Anadolu Agency Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel said this only showed that the Istanbul Photo Awards jury had made the right decision about the Russian photojournalist's image.

“The Istanbul awards jury shows how correctly they decided,” Sel said.

Esra Kirecci, ‎Anadolu Agency corporate communications director, also expressed her appreciation about the Istanbul Photo Awards decision.

“Our awards have proven that it feels the pulse of international photojournalism sector,” Kirecci said.

On the cover of Istanbul Photo Awards 2015 book was Daniel Berehulak's photograph on the Ebola epidemic in Liberia.

Taken for The New York Times, the image captured the drama of the deadly outbreak and was selected as "Photo of the Year 2015" at the Istanbul Photo Awards. Later, the same picture was awarded the Pulitzer Prize too.

The Istanbul Photo Awards held in March also succeeded in drawing global attention to recent developments in the Middle East.

A jury of international professionals had selected the winning photographs of Anadolu Agency’s second Istanbul Photo Awards, which was sponsored by Turkish Airlines.

*This story was changed April 28, 2016 to correct that winning photojournalist Sergey Ponomarev is Russian, and not Syrian as previously reported.

Executive for Getty Images and jury member of Anadolu Agency's Istanbul Photo Awards says event succeeded in drawing global attention to recent developments in Middle East

The Istanbul Photo Awards have succeeded in drawing global attention to recent developments in the Middle East region, said Georges De Keerle, an executive for Getty Images.

A jury of international professionals gathered last week to select the winning photographs of Anadolu Agency’s second Istanbul Photo Awards sponsored by Turkish Airlines.

A member of the Istanbul Photo Awards jury for the past two years, De Keerle said he was pleased to be involved in the contest once again.

De Keerle said he loved "Syrian Children Cry for Help" , the Photo of the Year 2016 which was taken by Syrian photographer Abd Doumany for news agency Agence France Presse (AFP). “Because it’s so simple and authentic."

"Basically, it’s the photo of a child screaming for help. He is unaware where this crazy war takes him… Any person who sees this photo defines this photo with the same words; sadness, unawareness, reasons and questions," explained De Keerle.

Talking about the recent terror attacks in Turkey, De Keerle said Turkey and the region needed stability.

"We don’t know how this stability can be provided, but I believe that the people in this region, people in Ankara and Istanbul only want peace. They want to go to Taksim in one piece."

Taken by Syrian photographer Abd Doumany for AFP, a powerful image showing a deep well of emotion in the eyes of a wounded boy, encapsulating the horror of the last several years in Syria, was chosen Photo of the Year 2016 by the international jury of the 2nd Istanbul Photo Awards.

Getty Images senior director Georges De Keerle said: "I believe that competition goes a long way to bring attention to the region and to the issues that shake the region." 

2015 Istanbul Photo Awards winner Daniel Berehulak said: "Being here this time has been a fascinating process of looking at all the works from all around the world and at some of the most important news stories of the year." 

The photo, showing a wounded boy in a makeshift hospital in Syria, is praised by jury for its great 'evocative power'

Taken by Syrian photographer Abd Doumany for AFP, a powerful image showing a deep well of emotion in the eyes of a wounded boy, encapsulating the horror of the last several years in Syria, was chosen Photo of the Year 2016 by the international jury of the 2nd Istanbul Photo Awards.

Taken in a makeshift hospital after a bombing, the photo is a very loud call to the world, expressed by the quiet gaze in the boy’s eyes. The expression on the boy’s face is a plea. It speaks directly to the world as the direct focus and attention on the situation in Syria now. The photo also underlines the reasons for the refugee crisis.

Additionally, Sergey Ponomarev won first prize for Single News, while Santi Palacios won first prize for Story News. Ian MacNicol was awarded for Single Sports, and Valery Sharifulin got first prize for Story Sports. Jury awarded Minzayar Oo with the Honour Award. For an overview of all the winners, visit: http://istanbulphotoawards.com/

Liu Heung Shing, director of the Shanghai Center of Photography and head of the jury, said, “This picture has enormous power to convey the suffering of this child’s questions to the world: Why, what happened? It is a very loud cry, but it is expressed in the very quiet gaze of his eyes.

“The jury decided to go for a picture that has evocative power rather than a descriptive image of the situation. The story of what is happening in Syria is capturing the imagination and concern, and I think this picture will remain part of our collective memory for years to come.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning Daniel Berehulak, who joined the jury as the laureate winner of Photo of the Year in the 2015 Istanbul Photo Awards, said the decision was unanimous. “It is a very very powerful photograph that shows so much emotion. We felt that it really encapsulated the terror, the horror of the situation that has been happening in Syria for a number of years. That also in a way is a source of a lot of the refugee crisis and many of the refugees that have fled Syria and are in Europe now.

“You know there are number of very very worthy photographs, but this was one that absolutely stood out and it was something that spoke, we felt, not only to us but to a much larger audience, as the direct focus and attention on the situation in Syria now.”

The photos were judged in four categories: News Single, News Story, Sports Single, and Sports Story by a jury of international professionals in Istanbul on March 18-21, 2016. Turkish Airlines is the Official Airline Sponsor of the contest.

2016 Photo Contest Jury

Returning as jury members were Shanghai Center of Photography Director Liu Heung Shing, Getty Images executive Georges De Keerle, AFP Photo Business Development Director Michel Scotto, as well as Guillaume Herbaut, a World Press Photo prize winner, Anadolu Agency Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel, and Anadolu Agency Photography Editor Firat Yurdakul. 

Pulitzer Prize laureate Daniel Berehulak joined this year's jury as the 2015 winner of the competition's "Photo of the Year" prize, along with Newsweek magazine photo editor James Wellford, Le Monde Photography Director Nicolas Jimenez, and Laurent Van der Stockt, recipient of the Excellence-Journalism Prize from Columbia University. 
For more about the jury members, visit http://www.istanbulphotoawards.com/SiteJury.aspx?Uye=0

Prizes

The contest awarded prizes in four categories to 11 photographers from 9 countries.

The jury selected first, second and third prizes in all four categories. The winner of the Photo of the Year and the first prizes in all categories receive cash prizes of US$8,000. Second-place winners receive a cash prize of US$3,000, while third-place winners get US$1,500.

The awards jury also made a statement denouncing the recent deadly terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul.