Istanbul Photo Awards 2019 exhibit opens at UN

NEW YORK

Anadolu Agency on Dec. 17 launched an exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York featuring the works of award-winning photojournalists who competed in the international Istanbul Photo Awards 2019.

The event, hosted by high-level Anadolu Agency executives, opened with the attendance of Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioğlu.

“We are very pleased to see the growing interest that Anadolu Agency’s annual photo awards have enjoyed over the years,” Sinirlioğlu said.

Some 15,000 people from over 100 countries applied for this year’s competition. The ambassador congratulated the photographers who have photos on display and the jury that selected them.

Sinirlioğlu highlighted that the photos depict many different emotions and expressions from the devastating impacts of natural disasters on people to the hope in the eyes of migrants who risk their lives for a better future.

“This exhibition puts the human face on some of the most challenging issues that we as member states deliberate everyday here under the roof of the U.N.,” Sinirlioğlu added.

Bahadır Saraçgil, an executive board member of Anadolu Agency, said that the event was the fifth exhibition of Istanbul Photo Awards 2019.

“As Anadolu Agency, we have witnessed photojournalists’ occupational devotion in our 100 years of journalism history. For this reason, we have initiated our Istanbul Photo Awards projects to reward the efforts of photojournalists and to encourage them,” Saraçgil said.

Stating that submissions opened on Nov. 1 for the sixth round of the contest, he said: “In 2019, photographers from over 100 countries, including war, conflict and disaster areas such as Syria, Mexico, France and Indonesia, applied for our contest with 15,000 photographs. The jury, consisting of experienced editors and photojournalists, rewarded 12 photographers from 10 countries. We are happy to exhibit the same photos in another continent, while the exhibition we opened in Tokyo last month is ongoing. This situation proves the universality of news photography, which is one of the starting points of our contest,” he added.

He voiced hope that striking photos presenting the summary of the last year will be submitted for the contest for which applications will be open until Jan. 31, 2020.

Saraçgil also said that after the three-month application process, the most impressive photos of the year will be announced in March.