A total of $ 58,000 is to be awarded to the winners of the Istanbul Photo Awards, the first edition of the international news and sports photography contest organized by the Anadolu Agency.

The jury of the Anadolu Agency’s own international news and sports photography contest, the Istanbul Photo Awards, will be composed of world-renowned editors, publishers and photojournalists.

The jury will include TIME’s Photo Editor Alice Gabriner, Stern’s Photo Editor Haral Menk, Director of Getty Images Georges Dekeerle, AFP’s Photo Distribution Director Michel Scotto, the World Press Photo award winners Guillaume Herbaut and Yuri Kozirev, war reporter Patrick Chauvel, Anadolu Agency Visual News Editor Ahmet Sel and AA’s Photography Editor Firat Yurdakul.

Alice Gabriner

Alice Gabriner is the International Photo Editor at TIME magazine, a position she held previously from 2003-2009. Prior to rejoining TIME, Gabriner was a Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic magazine, and before that, she was the Deputy Director of Photography in the Obama White House. During her ten-year tenure at TIME from 1999-2009, she led the photo department during the 2008-2009 campaign, election and inauguration of President Barack Obama.

She oversaw the magazine’s award-winning coverage of the Iraq War, and she worked with TIME’s notable team of photographers during the Presidential election in 2000. Over a 20-year career at newsweeklies, she has covered national, international, and breaking news. The photographers she has worked with have been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the ICP Infinity Award, and multiple ASME, World Press Photo and Picture of the Year awards. Gabriner has curated photography exhibits around the world, and she has been a member of numerous photo juries and portfolio reviews.

Harald Menk

Harald Menk is the photo editor at the Foreign Desk for Stern Magazine. He finished his studies with Magister Artium (master of arts) in communication science, sociology and history of arts, and continued his studies in political science and romance philology. The written examination was about "Working conditions for Photo Editors in German newspapers and the history of Photojournalism." Subsequently he worked for five years as a photo editor for dpa (german press agency) in Frankfurt. For 25 years he worked for STERN Magazine at the Foreign Desk. He has traveled to Seoul, Albertville, Calgary, Chicago (Olympics, Soccer championships), Nairobi (Rwanda genocide), Jordan (Iraq war). He attended the Workshop for photo editors, designers and photographers in Jakarta. He has been a jury member and chairman in Moscow, Warsaw, Croatia, Prague, Cambodia and for Getty Grant in Perpignan.

Georges De Keerle

Georges De Keerle is the senior Director for Entertainment and Partnerships of EMEA since 2002. Keerle worked as a photojournalist for SIPA Press in France between 1978-1982 and Angeli in UK between 1982-1984. He worked as bureau chief for Gamma in U,K, between 1984-1991 and Sygma in Russia between 1991-1997. He worked as liaison correspondent at the White House in U,S, from 1997 to 1999. He also worked as Newsmakers partner in U,S, between the years of 1997 and 1999 and Director of Photography for News and Entertainment in the U.S. between 1999-2002.

Michel Scotto

Michel Scotto, 60, is Director of Photo Business Development at Agence France-Presse. He started as a freelancer in the mid-70s before joining the Associated Press in 1979 in Paris. He then moved to Agence France-Presse in 1983 and took part in the launching of its international photo service late 1984. Shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 he took the position of Editor-in-Chief in charge of Europe, Africa and Middle East until 1994, when he moved to Hong Kong as Photo Manager for Asia-Pacific. In 2000, back in Paris, he was asked to look for new development opportunities through content partnerships and distribution which were made possible with the Internet. AFP online photo database ImageForum now makes available content from more than 50 Agencies to media and non-media clients in some 150 countries.

Yuri Kozirev

Yuri Kozyrev (Russia, 1963) has witnessed many world-changing events as a photojournalist for the past 25 years. He started his career documenting the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last empire of modern times, capturing the rapid changes in the former U.S.S.R. for the LA Times during the 90’s. In 2001, Yuri started to cover international news. Yuri has received numerous honors for his photography, including several World Press Photo awards, the OPC’s Oliver Rebbot Award, and the ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism and in 2008 he received the Frontline Club Award for his extensive coverage of the Iraq war.

Guillaume Herbaut

Guillaume Herbaut, born in 1970, has dedicated himself for some years now to historical places, filled with symbols and memory. His work called Tchernobylsty, which won the Kodak Critics Prize in 2001, was published in October 2003 and then won the Fuji Book Prize in the following year. Visa pour l’Image gave an exhibition of his work in September 2004. He won a grant from 3P for a project on Nagasaki. Prize-winner of the Lucien Hervé Prize in 2004, he carries on with the aim of revealing unseen tragedies. His work has been exhibited at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris in 2005, at “la Maison Rouge” and Foto España in 2007, at the Silverstein gallery in New York City in 2008. In 2009 and 2012, Herbaut won a prize at World Press Photo. In 2011, he won the Niepce Prize for his work on Chernobyl, and the France24/ RFI award for la Zone web documentary.

Patrick Chauvel

Patrick Chauvel (born in 1949 in France) has been an independent war photographer since his youth. He went through more than twenty conflicts all over the world, including the Six-Day War and the Vietnam War. He was injured in Ireland in 1975, in Lebanon in 1984 and in Panama City in 1989. He worked in Sarajevo between the years of 1992 and 1994. He covered the US military operations in Somalia in 1993. He made a documentary film ‘Rapporteurs de guerre’ about war journalism with Antoine Novat in 1989. He won the World Press Spot News Award for his work during the first Chechen war in 1995. Chauvel is one of the founders of WARM foundation, which focuses on the solutions of war and conflicts situations with scientists and researchers. He founded the association for Patrick Chauvel Foundation, aiming to help the young photojournalists. Chauvel is one of the oldest photo journalists who is still working in the field. He continues his career with writing novels, taking photographs on conflict areas and shooting documentaries.

Ahmet Sel

Ahmet Sel is the Visual News Editor in Chief  at the Anadolu Agency. A former cameraman and photo-reporter, Sel had settled in France in 1981, and then lived in Russia between 1990 and 2000,  where he was a correspondent and bureau chief for Sipa Press. In 2005-2006, Ahmet Sel worked as the Editor-in-Chief  for Sipa Press  in Paris. He won the "Fujifilm Press Photo Award France" in the portrait category, in 2003, and the Gold Award of National Magazine Awards Foundation (Canada) in the "Words & Pictures" category, in 2004. Ahmet Sel is the author of photography books: Kaboul Portraits Posés, Editions Horizon Illimité, Paris, 2003; Galop, Editions Horizon Illimité, Paris 2003; Moskova Insanları, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, Istanbul, 2003; Gens de Moscou, Catelya Editions, Paris, 2001.

Fırat Yurdakul

Firat Caglayan Yurdakul graduated from Hacettepe University, Department of History. He started to work as photojournalist in 1997, in Turkey. He has been working at the Anadolu Agency since 2001 and he is the photo editor since 2011.  He worked as a photojournalist in Indonesia, Banda Aceh, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. He received many awards in the news photo category including the Zoom in on Poverty award 2011 that was organized in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Xinhua News Agency.

Applications start

Applications to participate in the Istanbul Photo Awards have been made available on November 1.

A combined amount of $58,000 will be awarded to the winners in four categories and in one special prize.

Applications will be accepted between November 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015 on www.istanbulphotoawards.com.

Photographers are invited to submit their images to be assessed in four categories: New Single and News Story, for an individual news photo or a collection around a story, as well as Sports Single and Sports Story. The jury will also select one photographer for a special award.