A huge thank you to everyone for your incredible interest!  Entries are now closed for İstanbul Photo Awards 2025.  

1993 new accounts  
1966 photographers from 114 countries  
Around 22000 photos across 10 categories

Winners will be announced in March.

This year’s Single Daily Life category is dedicated to Marion Mertens, whose legacy will continue to inspire.

Stay tuned for more updates!

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Marion Mertens, member of the İstanbul Photo Awards jury from 2017 to 2024. She hold the position as the chair of the Jury five times during this period.

Marion’s career spanned various roles in journalism and photojournalism, including significant contributions to publications. She was known for her strong editorial judgment and her commitment to recognizing impactful visual stories. Mertens is best known for her role as an editor at Paris Match, one of France’s leading magazines.

Marion started her career at the news desk at Gamma later moving to picture editor at Le Figaro magazine in 1988. Marion then went on to be assignment editor at Gamma in 1990 before going back to magazines, first to VSD and then to Paris-March from 1998 to 2023. She was the deputy editor for 15 years before assigned as the Senior Digital Editor.

During her tenure, she was a strong advocate for photojournalists and field reporters, working to ensure their work was accurately represented and widely recognized. Her editorial leadership played a key role particularly in covering major international events, including political stories, presidential campaigns, and global crises. She was noted for her ability to balance coverage of large-scale political events with in-depth human-interest stories.

In addition to her work at Paris Match, Mertens was also active in the digital media landscape. She embraced new platforms and technologies, understanding their potential to reshape storytelling in modern journalism. Mertens adapted to the changing media environment, combining traditional reporting techniques with digital innovations to ensure broad, global reach for significant stories. As a visual storyteller, she opened her personel photo exhibition in Paris named "Lumieres De La Vie" in June 2024.

As İstanbul Photo Awards Team, we are proud to have had Marion Mertens as part of our jury for so many years. Her legacy will continue to inspire future generations of photographers and journalists, and her influence will be felt for years to come.

We extend our deepest condolences to Marion’s family, friends, and colleagues.

for more: http://v.aa.com.tr/3432360

Contest brings together esteemed panel of experts, including Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo winners

The İstanbul Photo Awards, a prestigious international photo contest organized by Anadolu, revealed its jury lineup for 2025 on Monday.

After celebrating its 10th anniversary, the contest once again brings together an esteemed panel of experts, including Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo winners, renowned for their work in sports, environmental, portrait, and conflict photography.

This year’s prominent jury features photojournalist Carol Guzy, Yuri Kozyrev from NOOR Agency, The Globe and Mail photojournalist Goran Tomasevic, National Geographic photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale, visual storyteller Marion Mertens, visual media consultant Michel Scotto, Getty Images Chief Sports Photojournalist Cameron Spencer and Turkish photojournalists Ahmet Sel and Firat Yurdakul.

The 2025 contest accepts entries in 10 categories including news, sports, nature and environment, daily life, and portrait photography, allowing for both single and series submissions.

Photographers can submit up to four works in single-photo categories and two in series categories, with each series comprising 10 photos. A maximum of 120 photos can be submitted per participant.

Winners will be selected during an online jury meeting in March 2025.

For more details on the jury and submission guidelines, visit the official website: www.istanbulphotoawards.com.

Contest to distribute $58,000 prize money in total, Photo of the Year comes with $6,000 prize

Applications for the İstanbul Photo Awards 2025, an international contest where the photos that define the world agenda compete, opened on Nov. 18.

Organized by Anadolu for the 11th consecutive year, the contest aims to promote press photography globally.

Each year, around 20,000 images are submitted to the İstanbul Photo Awards, which is widely regarded as among the world’s top photography contests.

Professional photographers, regardless of their press affiliation, are eligible to enter the contest provided their newsworthy photos were taken between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024.

The contest features 10 categories including Single News, Story News, Single Sports, Story Sports, Single Nature and Environment, Story Nature and Environment, Single Daily Life, Story Daily Life, Single Portrait and Story Portrait.

Photographers may submit both published and unpublished work in all categories, with the responsibility of providing accurate personal and image details.

Distinguished jury

A distinguished, star-studded panel of jurors from the photography world will select the winners in March 2025, evaluating each entry for technical skill, perspective, motion and emotional impact.

The contest will distribute $58,000 in prize money in total, with the Photo of the Year awarded to the top image in the Single News category, which comes with a $6,000 prize.

First-place winners in each category will receive $3,000, while second and third places will receive $1,500 and $1,000, respectively.

Applications can be submitted exclusively on istanbulphotoawards.com until Jan. 10.

Extensive information about the application conditions along with past winning photos, exhibition details, photo albums and information on previous jury members are also available on the website.

 'To be recognized by this panel of jury is very important and also encourages me to continue my work,' says Natalya Saprunova

Natalya Saprunova, who was awarded the Story Daily Life 2nd Prize at the 10th İstanbul Photo Awards, calls the contest a meaningful representation of global struggles and daily life.

“In (the) İstanbul Awards, there are a lot of categories ... It’s a very big representation of news and daily life and struggles in the world,” she said, speaking with Anadolu at the exhibition's opening in Brussels.

Saprunova, who in 2022 also won first prize in the same category in the contest organized by Anadolu, expressed her lifelong passion for photography.

She also shared her honor at winning the award for the second time with her series My Snow Cow. Her current work captures the resilience of Evdakia, a cow breeder in the small settlement of Oymyakon, in Yakutia in Russia’s Far East, known as the world’s coldest inhabited village.

“When I look at these pictures, I feel the very strong character of Evdakia," she said, adding that she was impressed by the woman’s courage and determination to bring back this type of cow, which was replaced during the Soviet era by another breed unsuited to the bitterly cold climate.

The photographer said she hopes her images inspire others: “I would like people (to) take this example to do things in their life, also to follow their dream … despite all kinds of conditions and obstacles.”

Saprunova highlighted that while her photos convey isolation and harsh conditions, they also underscore resilience. “I would like people see it and also decide to overcome their personal struggles in the life and take this example and bring it to their daily life,” she added.

'Very strong panel of jury'

Reflecting on her award from the İstanbul Photo Awards jury, Saprunova said: “This is a very important award for me. When I learned that I (had) won again the prize, it came as a very strong message of encouragement for me to be recognized by a very strong panel jury. Because I saw there are some photojournalists, also war reporters, picture editors. For me to be recognized by this panel jury is very important and also encourages me to continue my work.”

She also stressed that taking part in contests is as much about storytelling as winning. Saprunova said she entered the contest not only to win but also because she sees each contest as an occasion to improve her storytelling. Saprunova also encouraged young photographers to enter photography contests with this in mind.

The İstanbul Photo Awards, now celebrating its 10th year, opened on Nov. 4 in Brussels and will run until Nov. 18 at SR Gallery in Sablon.

This year’s contest received over 20,000 entries across 10 categories, with awards granted to 32 photographers.

The 2024 contest is supported by Turkcell as the communication sponsor, Sony as the award sponsor, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) as the international event sponsor, and Turkish Airlines (THY) as the airline sponsor.

Details of the award-winning photographs are available at istanbulphotoawards.com.