Istanbul Photo Awards winners announced

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Ebola outbreak in Liberia, by Australian photographer Daniel Berehulak.

An image taken by Australian photographer Daniel Berehulak for the New York Times, capturing the drama of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, has been chosen as Photo of the Year 2014 by the international jury of the 1st Istanbul Photo Awards News Photo Contest.

TIME magazine’s International Photo Editor and the head of the jury, Alice Gabriner, said she remembered being hit hard by the powerful image when she first saw it in the New York Times.

“It is even beyond a picture. The picture makes you want to know more. Then you find out this incredible story. Ebola was such a powerful story this past year and that’s the reason why we chose this picture,” Gabriner said.

She added that the overall quality of all the submitted photographs to the competition was very good and some of the world’s best photographers were among the applicants.

Prizes in four categories were also awarded to 11 photographers from seven countries in the competition.

Around 12,000 photographs from more than 100 countries were assessed in four categories: News Single, News Story, Sports Single and Sports Story by a jury of international professionals who gathered in Istanbul on March 14-17.

Along with Gabriner, the jury consisted of Pulitzer-winning former photojournalist and founder of the Shanghai Center of Photography, Liu Heung Shing; Stern Magazine’s Photo Editor Harald Menk; Getty Images’ Senior Director Georges De Keerle; AFP’s Photo Distribution Director Michel Scotto; World Press Photo Award winner Guillaume Herbaut; and World Press Photo Award winning war reporter Patrick Chauvel; as well as Anadolu Agency’s Visual News Editor Ahmet Sel and Photography Editor Fırat Yurdakul.