Anadolu Agency becomes the first professional participator from Turkey to enter the international festival in France.

The Anadolu Agency will open a stand at Visa Pour l'Image, one of the most prominent international photojournalism festivals, which is attended by leading photojournalists, news agencies, newspapers and magazines.

AA, the first professional Turkish participant in the festival, which is held in southern French city of Perpignan city, will promote Anadolu Images, the agency's new photo portal. It will also promote the Istanbul Photo Awards, an international photograph competition the agency will organize in 2015, to be held Sept. 1-7. 

The Anadolu Agency will hold the Istanbul Photo Awards in the scope of its centennial vision, according to which it aims to become one of the world’s top five news agencies by 2020, the 100th anniversary of its founding.

AA is already a well-established global news agency, offering newswires in seven languages with operations spreading around the globe, including in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Asia-Pacific. It serves business customers in more than 100 countries.

Participation in the festival is expected to help AA achieve its aim of having a say in the global photo distribution network. 

AA Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel will represent the agency during the festival. Agency Deputy Director-General Yilmaz Yaman will attend, as well. Director-General and Board Chairman Kemal Ozturk will also visit the festival. 

Anadolu Agency's photos from conflict zones will be projected on a huge screen during “projection nights” at the festival. A slide show of the photos taken by AA photojournalists in Syria, under the name "Aleppo, Wounded City," will be shown in Perpignan's amphitheater on Sept. 6.

The festival, held since 1989, is visited by around 150,000 people each year.