By Muhammet Tarhan
ANKARA (AA) - Britain’s charge d'affaires in Türkiye participated in Anadolu Agency’s “Photo of the Year” voting Friday.
Ajay Sharma voted in the News, Sports, Environment and Life categories and donated a sampling for the "Breath to the Turkish Century" afforestation campaign of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry General Directorate of Forestry via a link added to the voting page to raise awareness about environmental issues.
In the Sports category, Sharma voted for Hakan Burak Altunoz's "Storm on the Beach" because he said it reflects the “richness of Türkiye.”
Sharma said the picture has mountains, the sea, players training and traditional fishing boats in the same frame and “it's amazing how the photographer has managed to capture all these different elements in one photo and also related to the sport element. You have a sense of movement from the players moving, they're running.”
In the News category, Sharma chose "Bread boat" by Ali Atmaca.
“I chose the one related to the grain transport, and I chose it because I think it firstly it's a beautiful photograph. And it's a beautiful photograph because it really shows, I think what for me, is a unique view of the Bosphorus, the view of the bridge. But it also has the tanker carrying the grain and that's been such an important political story,” said Sharma.
“This year, the Ukraine story and Türkiye’s role in the Ukraine story really comes out in the sense of movement, sense of progress. Türkiye has achieved on grain really comes down to that photo with the motion of the tanker going through the Bosphorus. And I love the colors as well. So, I think that's got to be a standout photo,” he said.
In the Environment-Life category, Sharma voted for "40-degree movements" by Aziz Aslan which depicts children cooling off in an ornamental pool in Diyarbakir.
The boy diving in the pool gives the feeling “almost like the boys flying in space” and captured the beauty and history of the surroundings of the pool, he said.
Sharma said that there are great photos this year but he chose “positive” ones.
“There are some which are very important photographs which relate to war, which relate to accidents, which relate to suffering. And I didn't want to choose one related to a very unhappy topic. I wanted to do something which would make people feel positive about this year. And that's why I chose these photos. The photos with movement, the photos with color, photos with life,” he said. “I wanted us to choose. That's beautiful and amazing photographs that people have taken in this collection. And related to a very unhappy topic. I wanted to do something which would make people feel positive about this year. And that's why I chose these photos.”
Photos of the year will be chosen during the voting process Friday from among the 85 most impressive images taken by Anadolu Agency photojournalists and reporters on a variety of subjects.
Images that defined 2022 include war, politics, sports and current events that have a significant effect on Türkiye and the world's agendas and are frequently used in significant international media outlets.
This year, Environment and Life was added as a third category to the annual voting that takes place in the News and Sports categories. Environment and Life is a new initiative by Anadolu Agency in recent years to increase environmental awareness.
By using the campaign of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Forestry, participants can also donate seedlings by using a link posted on the site.
Every year, Photos of the Year voting, which Anadolu Agency hosted for the first time in 2012, is attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ministers, lawmakers, bureaucrats, athletes and artists. A total of 312,136 people attended voting in 2021.
Voting will take place at photosoftheyear.aa.com.tr until 5 p.m. local time Jan. 16.