Syrian wins Istanbul Photo Award

“This picture has enormous power to convey the suffering of this child’s questions to the world: Why, what happened? It is a very loud cry, but it is expressed in the very quiet gaze of his eyes,” said Liu Heung Shing, director of the Shanghai Center of Photography and head of the jury. 

“The jury decided to go for a picture that has evocative power rather than a descriptive image of the situation. The story of what is happening in Syria is capturing the imagination and concern, and I think this picture will remain part of our collective memory for years to come,” he added.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Daniel Berehulak, who joined the jury as the laureate winner of Photo of the Year in the 2015 Istanbul Photo Awards, said the decision was unanimous. 

“It is a very, very powerful photograph that shows so much emotion. We felt that it really encapsulated the terror, the horror of the situation that has been happening in Syria for a number of years. That also in a way is a source of a lot of the refugee crisis and many of the refugees that have fled Syria and are in Europe now,” said Berehulak.

Meanwhile, photographer Sergey Ponomarev won the first prize at the ceremony for Single News, while Santi Palacios won the first prize for Story News. Ian MacNicol was awarded for Single Sports, and Valery Harifulin won first prize for Story Sports. Finally, the jury awarded Minzayar Oo with its Honorary Award.