TASS agency names jury for this year's int'l news photo awards

By Merve Berker

ANKARA (AA) - Russian news agency TASS on Wednesday named 12 jury members to serve in its 2021 news photo awards "A Changing World."

"Changing World is being handed the baton from last year's Overcoming COVID competition," the agency said on the website devoted to the contest, which accepts entries in four categories: News, people & lifestyle, healthcare, and environment.

"However, if in 2020 the focus was entirely on the pandemic, in 2021 a broader view of the developments is welcomed, which reflect both the crucial changes in people's lives and throughout the world in the post-COVID reality as well as key events of this year," it added.

The agency said that the "priority objective" of the competition's participants was to "see and address the defining points of the most important social and political processes as well as personal histories against this backdrop."

Announcing a $10,000 grand prize, the agency said that for each nomination, two winners would be selected in the categories of best single photo and best photo series. "In total, eight winners will each be getting a $3,000 award."

Submissions, which began on Oct. 11, will be open until Dec. 24 via its website www.npacontest.com.

The assessments of the professional jury will start on Dec. 27 and go on until Feb. 14, with the winners to be announced in March.

Twelve jury members from 11 different countries, Russia, Spain, China, Japan, France, South Korea, Germany, the US, Italy, Hungary, and Turkey, will serve on the jury.

"The photo contest's international jury is led by Grigory Dukor, the jury's chair, who heads the Photo and Video Service at the TASS Russian News Agency," said the agency in a written statement.

"We have put together a team of professionals, representing the world's leading mass media outlets," the statement quoted Dukor as saying.

"These are people who not only have an enormous grasp of the trends of today's photo journalism, but also set these trends themselves.

"Their deep and comprehensive view on topical issues for this sphere, their artistic taste and ability to see history in each image guarantee a true, unbiased assessment based on years of practical experience," he added.

- 2020 contest

Organized by TASS, last year's contest "News Photo Awards. Overcoming COVID" was dedicated to the global coronavirus pandemic and aimed to bring a new perspective on the issue through the lenses of photojournalists.

Brais Lorenzo Couto, working with the EFE Agency based in Spain, won the Grand Prize with his shot named, Birthday, in which he pictured Elena Perez joyfully celebrating her 98th birthday surrounded by the workers of her elderly home.

Working with Russia-based Rossiya Segodnya (Sputnik) Agency, Ila Pitalev was named winner of the Single Photo category, with his entry, titled The Sacrament.

The prize for the Photo Series category went to Adam Gray, with the US-based SWNS, for his photo series named In the epicenter of COVID-19.

The winners of both categories were rewarded with $3,000, while the grand prize winner received $10,000 with his work.

The contest sought to draw attention to the risky yet heroic efforts of photojournalists during the pandemic. Its results were announced on March 11, marking the first year of the declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Contestants from 84 countries had applied with more than 4,000 photographs.

In their speeches, the jury underlined the challenge of selecting a winner, as many of the entries were striking and impactful.

Much emphasis was put on the fact that the photographers risked their lives entering the "red zones" to shoot the pictures, and they expressed their "big respects" to all contestants.