Over 6,000 photographs have been sent from around 100 countries since Nov. 1, 2014.

Saturday marks the last day for applications to be sent to the Istanbul Photo Awards, the first edition of the international news and sports photography contest organized by The Anadolu Agency.

Organizers aim to make the contest one of the most important photo award contests in the world.

Photographers are invited to submit images to be assessed in several categories: News 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.

Since Nov. 1, over 6,000 photographs have been sent from contestants from around 100 countries.

World-renowned professionals to be part of jury

The inaugural competition will feature a jury of respected professionals, including TIME magazine’s international photo editor Alice Gabriner and Hong Kong-born Pulitzer-winning former photojournalist and founder of the Shanghai Center of Photography, Liu Heung Shing.

The jury will also include Stern Magazine’s photo editor Harald Menk, senior director of Getty Images Georges De Keerle, AFP’s photo distribution director Michel Scotto, World Press Photo award winners Guillaume Herbaut, war reporter Patrick Chauvel, plus Anadolu Agency visual news editor Ahmet Sel and AA’s photography editor Firat Yurdakul.

The Istanbul Photo Awards were first presented to international photo reporters during the Visa Pour l'Image Perpignan photojournalism festival in France, which took place between September 1 and 7 in 2014.

The jury will decide the winning photographs on March 14-15, 2015. The winners will be announced with a press conference in April.

There will be an exhibition of the winning photographs in Istanbul and in Ankara and an album will be made as well.

Prizes of the contest

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

Applications will be accepted via www.istanbulphotoawards.com.

The category prizes are:

More detailed information can be obtained by visiting the website istanbulphotoawards.com and anadoluimages.com.

Followers also can also learn more about the contest from social media, including at:

Twitter: @istphotoawards

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IstanbulPhotoAwards

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/128873901@N03/

and Instagram: http://instagram.com/istanbulphotoawards

The competition results will also be announced on Anadolu Images, the international photograph platform of The Anadolu Agency.

The Anadolu Agency offers a newswire service in eight languages with operations around the globe, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Asia-Pacific.

It serves clients in more than 100 countries and is one of the main sources for discovering, purchasing and managing images and other digital content.