Damir Sagolj Wins Photo of the Year 2018 at Anadolu Agency's 4th Istanbul Photo Awards

ISTANBUL - Taken by Damir Sagolj, a striking photograph of a dead boy whose body is covered by a blanket and his eyes covered by leaves was chosen as Photo of the Year 2018 by the international jury of the 4th Istanbul Photo Awards.

The photo was taken in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. The boy, Abdul Aziz, and his family had fled Myanmar two months before his death from fever. Unfortunately, Abdul Aziz is not the only child victim of the ongoing clashes in the region.

Kevin Frayer won first prize for Story News that he covered for Getty Images. Lukas Schulze was awarded first prize for Single Sports, while Pavel Volkov won first prize for Story Sports with his series taken for Vechernaya Moskva newspaper. Marcus Yam won first prize for Story Nature & Environment with his work for the Los Angeles Times.

For an overview of the winners visit: https://istanbulphotoawards.com/

Jury President Marion Mertens, senior digital editor for Paris Match, 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 Istanbul Photo Awards are different from other prizes. “It is a great combination of features and news and social issues; I think it is getting better every year,” she said.

Another jury member, Cameron Spencer, an award-winning chief sports photographer at Getty Images based in Sydney, Australia, said: “The good thing about the jury is that 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.”

He also said of the winner: “The whole jury was onboard with the decision; I can’t wait for it to be announced.”

According to Spencer, the Istanbul Photo Awards give journalists from around the world “a platform to show their works across the world… it is great exposure for photographers.”

Photographs were awarded in eight categories: Single News, Story News, Single Sports, Story Sports, Single Nature & Environment, Story Nature & Environment, Story Portrait, Story Daily Life, in addition to a Young Photographer category.

They were chosen by a jury of international professionals gathered in Istanbul on March 18-21, 2018. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) sponsored the contest.

2018 Photo Contest Jury

Marion Mertens, a senior digital editor at Paris Match in France; Cameron Spencer, Getty Images chief sports photographer; Yuri Kozyrev, a photojournalist with Netherlands-based Noor Images; Georges De Keerle, photographer and visual media adviser; Michel Scotto, AFP director of photo business development; Ahmet Sel, Anadolu Agency’s visual news editor-in-chief; and Firat Yurdakul, Anadolu Agency’s photography editor, all returned as jury members this year. 

Two new names were added to this year’s panel for the first time: Andrei Polikanov, photo news editor from Russia, and Frederic Lafargue, winner of last year’s Istanbul Photo Awards for his image ‘Fleeing from Daesh’.  

For more information about jury members, please visit: https://istanbulphotoawards.com/Jury.aspx

Prizes

Prizes were awarded to 27 photographers from 22 countries.

The jury selected first, second and third prizes in all categories. The Photo of the Year winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000. First-prize winners in all other categories will receive $8,000 each.

Second-place winners, meanwhile, will receive $5,000 each, while third-place winners will receive $3,000 each.

The winner of the Young Photographer award will receive a cash prize of $3,000.

This year’s jury did not reward Single Portrait and Single Daily Life categories. However, they gave an honorable mention to Rodrigo Cabrita in Story Nature & Environment and Story Daily Life Honorouble Mention to Anastasia Rudenko.

More information about the contest is available at istanbulphotoawards.com.