Bosnian photojournalist Damir Sagolj's striking shot of a dead boy, his eyes covered with leaves, was chosen Photo of the Year 2018 in the İstanbul Photo Awards, organized by Anadolu Agency.
Sponsored by the İstanbul Greater Municipality, Turkish Airlines, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), this year's contest saw 28 photographers from 22 countries around the world receiving awards.
Around 37,000 photos from 125 countries were submitted to the contest, and jury members picked the winners in all categories on March 18-21 in İstanbul.
Canadian photojournalist Kevin Frayer won first prize in the Story News category for his series on the Rohingya he did for Getty Images.
Lukas Schulze, a freelance photojournalist based in Germany, got first prize in the Single Sports category with his photo "Athlete vs. Animal," while Pavel Volkov from Russia won first prize in the Story Sports category for his series taken for Russian daily Vechernyaya Moskva.
Malaysian photojournalist Muhamed Fathil Asri from The New Straits Times Press won first prize in the Single Nature & Environment category, while Marcus Yam's work for The Los Angeles Times was awarded first prize in the Story, Nature & Environment category.
Andrew McConnell's series taken for London-based Panos Pictures won first prize in the Story Portrait category, while Russian photographer Sergei Stroitelev got first prize in the Story Daily Life category.
Ezra Acayan, a freelance photojournalist in the Philippines, won the Young Photographer award, given for the second time to a winner under age 28.
This year's jury did not nominate a winner in the Single Portrait and Single Daily Life categories. However, they gave Honorable Mentions to Rodrigo Cabrita in the Story, Nature & Environment category and to Anastasia Rudenko in the Story Daily Life category.
The winning photos will be compiled in an annual book and will be shown at exhibits in Turkey and abroad throughout the year.
For a list of all the winners, visit: http://İstanbulphotoawards.com/
Jury President Marion Mertens, senior digital editor at Paris Match magazine, said: "I think the winner this year is really strong. It is a picture that explains a lot about what the big story of the year was. It is a very moving picture, while it is also a very strong picture."
According to Mertens, the İstanbul Photo Awards is different from other awards. "It is a great combination of features and news and social issues, so I think it is getting better every year."
Also on the jury, Cameron Spencer, a Sydney-based award-winning chief sports photographer at Getty Images, said: "The good thing about the jury is we had strength in different types of photography.
"We all came together and worked as a team to come up with the strongest picture from around the world."
This year's winner "deserves to be the winner," all the jury members agreed, Spenser said.
According to Spencer, the İstanbul Photo Awards is important as it gives journalists from around the world a platform to showcase their works across the world in exhibits.
"The İstanbul Photo Awards travels around the world to various cities, and it's great exposure for photographers," he said.
2018 PHOTO CONTEST JURY
Returning as jury members this year were Marion Mertens, senior digital editor at Paris Match in France; Cameron Spencer, Getty Images sports chief photographer; Yuri Kozyrev, photojournalist with Netherlands-based Noor Images; Georges De Keerle, photographer and visual media adviser; Michel Scotto, director of photo business development at AFP; Ahmet Sel, Anadolu Agency's visual news editor-in-chief; and Fırat Yurdakul, Anadolu Agency's photography editor.
Joining the jury for the first time this year were Andrei Polikanov, visual director of online journal Takie Dela, and Frederic Lafargue, the winner of last year's İstanbul Photo Awards for his image "Fleeing Daesh."
PRIZES
The jury selected first, second, and third prizes in all categories. The Photo of the Year winner receives a cash prize $10,000. The winners of the first prizes in all categories get cash prizes of $8,000. Second-place winners get $5,000, third-place winners get $3,000, and Young Photographer winners get $3,000.
