23 October 2018•Update: 06 November 2018
By Servet Gunerigok
NEW YORK
The third exhibition of the 2018 Istanbul Photo Awards, organized by Anadolu Agency, opened Monday in New York, with the winning entries on display at UN headquarters.
Anadolu Agency's Deputy Director-General Mustafa Ozkaya said he was glad to open this year’s exhibition, which was also held in Istanbul and Ankara.
The contest was sponsored by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, or TIKA, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Turkish Airlines.
In his remarks, Ozkaya praised the contest as being a "widely known, prestigious" event around the world.
"On behalf of Anadolu Agency's director general [Senol Kazanci] and our colleagues, I would like to thank the United Nations for hosting our exhibition for the third time, and also, I would like to thank our guests and our sponsors," he said.
Turkey's UN Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu also praised the contest for supporting "talented photojournalists".
"We see in these photos the power of photography to communicate powerful messages to all humanity," said Sinirlioglu.
He also paid tribute to the late renowned photographer Ara Guler who passed away last week.
Among the attendees were Turkish and foreign officials and one of the winners of the contest, Marcus Yam from the U.S., who won in the story nature and environment category. His photo series for the Los Angeles Times was about the 2017 California wildfires.
The exhibition at UN headquarters will continue until Nov. 2.
Roughly 37,000 photos from 125 countries were entered in the contest with 27 photographers from 22 countries receiving awards.
Bosnian photo correspondent Damir Sagolj won the photo of the year prize for a picture of a child in a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh.
Kevin Frayer from Canada was the winner of the story news category for photos of Rohingya.
German Lukas Schulze was awarded first prize in the single sports category. His photo titled "Athlete versus Animal" was taken during the 2017 FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest.
Pavel Volkov from Russia won first prize in the story sports category with his photo of a handicapped athlete.
Malaysian photographer Muhamed Fathil Asri was given first prize in the single nature and environment category. His photo, taken from a height, shows vehicles moving to an old bus terminal to escape a flood in Malaysia's Pekan Rantau Panjang in early 2017.
Andrew McConnell from Ireland won the story portrait category and Russian photographer Sergei Stroitelev won the story daily life prize.
Philippine photographer Ezra Acayan received the young photographer award.
Rodrigo Cabrita from Portugal claimed the honor award in the story nature and environment category while Russian Anastasia Rudenko won the same award in the story daily life category.
All winning photos are available on www.istanbulphotoawards.com and professional photographers can apply for next year's contest on the same website from Nov. 1, 2018 to Jan. 31, 2019.
