Istanbul Photo Awards open New York exhibition

NEW YORK

The third exhibition of the 2018 Istanbul Photo Awards, organized by state-run Anadolu Agency, opened on Oct. 22 in New York, with the winning entries on display at U.N. headquarters. 

Anadolu Agency’s Deputy Director-General Mustafa Özkaya opened this year’s exhibition, which was also held in Istanbul and Ankara. 

The contest was sponsored by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Turkish Airlines. 

Praising the contest as being a “widely known and prestigious” event around the world, Özkaya thanked Director-General Şenol Kazancı as well as the United Nations for hosting the exhibition for the third time. 

Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioğlu also praised the contest for supporting “talented photojournalists.” 

“We see in these photos the power of photography to communicate powerful messages to all humanity,” said Sinirlioğlu. 

He also paid tribute to the renowned photojournalist Ara Güler who passed away last week. 

Among the attendees were Turkish and foreign officials and one of the winners of the contest, Marcus Yam from the U.S., who won in the story nature and environment category. His photo series for the Los Angeles Times was about the 2017 California wildfires. 

The exhibition at U.N. headquarters will continue until Nov. 2. 

Roughly 37,000 photos from 125 countries entered the contest with 27 photographers from 22 countries receiving awards. 

Bosnian photo correspondent Damir Sagolj won the photo of the year prize for a picture of a child in a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh. 

Kevin Frayer from Canada was the winner of the story news category for photos of Rohingya. 

German Lukas Schulze was awarded first prize in the single sports category. His photo titled “Athlete versus Animal” was taken during the 2017 FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest. 

Pavel Volkov from Russia won first prize in the story sports category with his photo of a handicapped athlete.
Malaysian photographer Muhamed Fathil Asri was given first prize in the single nature and environment category. His photo, taken from a height, shows vehicles moving to an old bus terminal to escape a flood in Malaysia’s Pekan Rantau Panjang in early 2017. 

Andrew McConnell from Ireland won the story portrait category and Russian photographer Sergei Stroitelev won the story daily life prize.

Philippine photographer Ezra Acayan received the young photographer award. 

Rodrigo Cabrita from Portugal claimed the honor award in the story nature and environment category while Russian Anastasia Rudenko won the same award in the story daily life category. 

All winning photos are available on www.istanbulphotoawards.com and professional photographers can apply for next year’s contest on the same website from Nov. 1, 2018 to Jan. 31, 2019.