The first exhibition, including the photographs that won awards in the international news photography competition "Istanbul Photo Awards 2018" organized by Anadolu Agency (AA), was opened in Istanbul Taksim Maksem Cumhuriyet Art Gallery.
AA Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel said, "Photography is a media that always has an important place in our lives as a versatile interaction tool." said.
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mevlüt Uysal, who attended the event, stated that the competition has reached good places in 4 years and expressed his wish that its international effectiveness will increase and reach better points.
Underlining the importance of organizing an international photography competition named Istanbul, Uysal noted that Istanbul will add value to this competition and the competition will add value to Istanbul.
Mevlüt Uysal thanked those who contributed and said, “Photojournalism is a difficult profession. I also engaged in this business as an amateur during my student years. While doing that difficult work, the evaluation of those immortalized frames in a competition and the display of frames from all over the world is the biggest gain for Istanbul.” said.
“The awareness of the competition increased in a short time”
AA Visual News Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Sel also emphasized that Istanbul Photo Awards, an international news photography competition, has gained an important place among the news photography competitions in the world in 4 years.
Sel stated that the number of photojournalists participating in the competition has increased and that the participants are among the best photojournalists in the world.
“Both the prestige, recognition and recognition of this competition organized by Anadolu Agency has reached a very good point in a short time. The profession of photojournalism is one of the most difficult and powerful professions in the press. It is powerful in terms of the meaning it carries and the messages it conveys, but it is difficult because it is a profession that photojournalists perform under very difficult conditions, sometimes risking their lives. If these people and these photographs did not exist, we would often not be able to see many things and follow the developments in the world. Photojournalists have a very important role to play in our lives and in the world of information and communication. Istanbul Photo Awards wants to support people who do this difficult profession. "One of the biggest expectations of a photojournalist when he enters this profession is for his work to be accepted, recognized and known."
“Photography is a universal language”
Ahmet Sel pointed out that photojournalism is one of the most difficult professions in the media sector and said, “Photography is a universal language with an international language. Sometimes you can perceive the message of a photo even without captions. Sometimes a photo can affect the course of all events. We have seen examples of this in the past. "Even if photography does not change everything, it is at least a communication tool that allows people to become aware of many issues." expressed his opinion.
Noting that photography can be perceived as a key and central point in agency journalism, Sel said, “Of course, written journalism and video news are very important. Photography also has a very important place among these. “Photography is a media that has always had an important place in our lives as a versatile interaction tool.” evaluated.
“Photojournalists want to be evaluated by these people”
Sel reminded that various photography competitions are held around the world.
“Photojournalists generally pay close attention to two things when participating in a competition. One is the stages this competition has gone through so far and its prestige. The second is the jury. The jury members brought together in our Istanbul Photo Awards competition consist of people who are at the most important points in the world in the field of photography and journalism and who shape news photography. A jury that includes such prestigious names naturally attracts the attention of photojournalists. Photojournalists want to be evaluated by these people.”
Sel emphasized that the first-place photo was about the tragedy experienced by Rohingya Muslims when they came to Bangladesh, and stated that this photo of a child who lost his life both appealed to emotions and gave information about the occurrence of an event beyond emotions.
Stating that there is a dead child in the photo and that death also carries some traces of life, Sel said, “The fact that the tree leaves, which are the symbol of life, were covered over the child's eyes when he ended his life, adding a different dimension to this photo. I think this is the characteristic of the whole photograph, the photograph of a dead child also contains life in it. "I think the biggest reason why this photo was deemed worthy of first place in the competition is that it has this depth." he said.
“It is an effective decision to name the competition 'Istanbul'”
AA Board Member Şaban Kızıldağ noted that the competition was organized to support the profession of photojournalism, which continues under difficult conditions, and that it will be better understood in the coming years that naming it 'Istanbul' is an effective decision.
Noting that there were approximately 37 thousand photo applications from 125 countries for the competition, Kızıldağ stated that the jury gathered in Istanbul awarded 27 photographers from 22 countries as a result of a 3-day evaluation.
Kızıldağ, on behalf of AA, thanked the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for its official sponsorship, Turkish Airlines (THY), which is Turkey's flag carrier in the world, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) for their contributions to the competition, and added that the award-winning exhibition, which was exhibited domestically, was exhibited in the country. He informed that the frames will be exhibited first at the UN Headquarters in New York and then at the Red October Gallery in Moscow.
Şaban Kızıldağ underlined that the competition will be made visible in the international arena with exhibitions abroad and said that the awarded photographs will be seen by millions of people.
After the opening speeches, Deputy Chairman of AA Board of Directors Kızıldağ presented a gift to IMM President Uysal.
Later, AA Visual News Editor Ahmet Sel gave information about the exhibition to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mevlüt Uysal, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Culture Department Head Rıdvan Duran and AA Board Member Şaban Kızıldağ.
37 thousand photo applications were submitted from approximately 125 countries to the competition, where Bosnian photojournalist Damir Sagolj was awarded the "Photo of the Year" award with his photograph "Child" taken in Bangladesh for Reuters.
The exhibition, where all 180 awarded photographs can be seen, can be visited until May 15. A special selection of photographs will also be presented to Istanbulites simultaneously at Taksim Metro station.
Source: AA
