İstanbul Photo Awards 2025 opens its 4th exhibition in Madrid

MADRID

The fourth exhibition of İstanbul Photo Awards 2025, organized by Anadolu, opened on Thursday in Madrid, Spain.

The show, held at the Pons Foundation, features more than 90 photographs that were placed in the international competition.

Anadolu's CEO Serdar Karagoz, EFE news agency President Miguel Angel Oliver, and Türkiye’s Ambassador to Madrid Nuket Kucukel Ezberci attended the opening, along with guests from diplomatic circles, the media, the arts, and business.

Karagoz said photographs that capture life, injustice, and genocide can be difficult to look at, but “we must never look away.”

“These are photographs of dignity and truth, images that remind us of what makes us human,” he said.

Karagoz said photos confront viewers with reality.

“When we look at the photo of a mother in Gaza holding her lifeless child, we are not looking at politics -- we are looking at truth. An unbearable, undeniable, deeply human truth,” he said. “A photograph can be hope, it can be oppression, it can make us smile or cry. But above all -- as we have seen once again in Gaza -- it can be evidence of life, injustice, and genocide.”

He said the 11th edition of İstanbul Photo Awards continues to expand each year. The contest received 22,000 entries from around the world, with photojournalists capturing the human condition “with extraordinary clarity.”

EFE's Oliver thanked the photographers “who remind us, with their images, what happens when the world decides to look the other way,” and thanked Anadolu news agency for bringing the exhibition to Madrid.

Ambassador Ezberci said opening the exhibition in Spain carries “special significance.”

“Türkiye and Spain have been working together from the very beginning in the search for stability, security, and peace in Gaza,” she said. “We will continue our determined efforts toward a just and comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution. Strong pro-Palestinian sentiment in both Spanish and Turkish societies makes this exhibition even more meaningful.”

The exhibition includes images on social issues, sports, the environment, and daily life, and will remain open through the end of the month.

İstanbul Photo Awards 2025 traveled to Madrid after previous stops in Ankara, Istanbul, and New York.

This year’s İstanbul Photo Awards contest is supported by Turkcell as the communications sponsor, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) as the overseas event sponsor, and Turkish Airlines as the airline sponsor.

Applications for next year's contest (Istanbul Photo Awards 2026) are now open. Professional photographers have until 9 January 2026 to submit their newsworthy work via ‘www.istanbulphotoawards.com’. Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.