31 October 2017•Update: 09 March 2018
By Meltem Bulur
ANKARA
Anadolu Agency's Istanbul Photo Awards 2018 contest is preparing to start accepting applications from Wednesday.
This year marks the contest’s fourth year with an expanded range of categories. There will be 10 categories including single news and story news, single sports and story sports, single portrait and story portrait, single nature-environment and story nature-environment.
The single news first prize winner will be nominated for Photo of the Year.
In March, a jury of international experts will select the winners.
Among the world-famous jury members last year were Marion Mertens, digital editor of French newsweekly Paris Match; NOOR agency photojournalist Yuri Kozyrev; Getty Images Australian photographer Cameron Spencer; the Director of Photo Business Development at Agence France-Presse Michel Scotto; founder of Shanghai Center of Photography (SCOP) Liu Heung Shing; a visual documentary producer and curator Liza Faktor; Anadolu Agency Visual News Editor Ahmet Sel; and Anadolu Agency Photography Editor Firat Yurdakul.
This year's jury members have not been revealed yet.
In the first contest in 2015, Daniel Berehulak won the Photo of the Year prize and just after that won a Pulitzer Prize.
Similarly, Russian photojournalist Sergey Ponomarev got first place in the single-photograph category in 2016 and right after won a Pulitzer Prize for the same photo.
Last year, Frederic Lafargue's Fleeing From Daesh image was chosen as Photo of the Year.
A number of exhibitions have been held inside and outside Turkey to display the works of award-winning photographers.
In November, another exhibition will take place at the Red October Gallery in Moscow.
Total prize money for all categories in the contest will be $165,000 this year.
The winner of Photo of the Year will be awarded $10,000, while winners in other categories will be given $8,000 for first prize, $5,000 for second and $3,000 for third.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 31, 2018, on http://istanbulphotoawards.com
