Winners of 10th İstanbul Photo Awards announced

By Gozde Bayar

Winners of the international news photography contest the 10th İstanbul Photo Awards have been announced.

Organized by Anadolu for the tenth time this year, 32 photographers received awards in 10 categories.

More than 20,000 photographs were submitted to the contest, with Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem's work titled 'Palestinian Woman Embraces the Body of Her Niece' being deemed worthy of the 'Photo of the Year' award.

The photo depicts a 36-year-old Palestinian Inas Abu Maamar embraces the body of her 5-year-old niece Saly, who was killed in an Israeli attack at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The winners of the İstanbul Photo Awards, which has become a global platform with 18,000 photographers registered since its first year, were determined by an international jury consisting of prestigious names from the photography world.

This year's jury brings together prestigious figures from the world of photography, including National Geographic photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale, photojournalist Carol Guzy, NOOR Agency photojournalist Yuri Kozyrev, The Globe and Mail photojournalist Goran Tomasevic, visual storyteller Marion Mertens, visual media consultant Michel Scotto, Getty Images chief sports photojournalist Cameron Spencer, photojournalist Ahmet Sel, and Firat Yurdakul, Visual News Director of Anadolu.

The jury, gathered online, said that they were very impressed by the photos sent in the eliminations made through the platform specially prepared by the Anadolu’s Information Technologies team, and that they had difficulty in deciding when choosing the best photos.

In the "Story News" category, Agence France Press (AFP) photographer Mahmud Hams was awarded first place with his series about the Israeli administration's attacks on the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7, 2023.

Photographer Luca Bettini won first place in the "Single Sport" category with his work documenting Swiss cyclist Stefan Kung's accident at the 2023 UEC Road European Championship and continuing the race with a bloody face and a broken helmet.

AFP photographer Jeff Pachoud won first place in the "Story Sports" category with his photographs of the women's France cycling race.

Minqiang Lu, who photographed elephants looking for food in the garbage mountain in Sri Lanka, was awarded the first prize in the "Single Nature and Environment" category.

The jury also selected Garry Lotulung's work, which brings the nature conservation area affected by nickel mining to the agenda, as the winner of the "Story Nature and Environment" category.

The winner of "Single Portrait" was Emeke Obanor, who drew attention to the harms of using plastic bags.

Anna Surinyach won the first prize in the "Story Portrait" category with her work titled "Sea of ​​Mourning".

In the "Single Daily Life" category, Associated Press (AP) photographer Ebrahim Noroozi received the first prize with his photo of Afghan children in a refugee camp.

Politiken photographer Mads Nissen won first place in the "Story Daily Life" category with his work on Mexican criminal organizations.

This year’s communication sponsor is Turkcell, which is supported by Sony as the award sponsor, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) as the international event sponsor and Turkish Airlines, the nation’s flag carrier, as the partial transportation sponsor.

In addition to the 30 awards given in 10 categories, the jury awarded Rajendra Mohan, for his discrimination-themed work on Indian widows, specifically for the 10th anniversary of the competition.

AFP photographer Sameer Al-Doumy, who documented the earthquake in Türkiye, was awarded in the Young Photographer award.

In the contest, where a total of $60,000 was awarded, the first prize winners in all categories will also be presented with the SONY Alpha A7 III camera.

Information on all jury members of the contest and winning photos from previous years is available at istanbulphotoawards.com.