Turkish News Agency, Anadolu Wins International Photo Award

A photojournalist from Turkey’s leading Anadolu Agency on Monday won the Pictures of the Year (POY) Asia, a prestigious international contest.

Sebnem Coskun came first in the Nature and Environment category for her image of a diver surrounded by COVID-19 waste in the Mediterranean Sea, POY announced on social media.

The photo of Turkish diver Sahika Ercumen was taken last year in the Bosphorus Strait to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the seas.

Speaking about her photo, Coskun said she hopes to draw more attention on the issue “which is the responsibility and problem of every individual globally.”

Coskun was also the finalist in the Photographer of the Year, Asia category for her series of photos, Asylum Seekers on Move to Reach Europe and Turkey’s COVID-19 Story.

“I have followed the migrants in [the northwestern province of] Edirne. It is a great pleasure for me to give voice to those people and to be able to fulfill my professional duty. The process was the same for COVID-19,” she said.

Anadolu Agency also won the finalist award in the Local Team Picture Story of the Year category for the photo series, An Open Door to Europe.

Photojournalists Coskun, Elif Ozturk, Arif Hudaverdi Yaman, Gokhan Balci, and Onur Coban captured 20 images of a group of asylum seekers in Turkey’s northwestern border province of Edirne trying to cross to Europe.

Anadolu Agency’s 4th POY award

This is Anadolu Agency’s fourth POY award.

The winners include: Mosaab Elshamy from Egypt in 2014, Sebastian Castenada from Peru in 2015, Mustafa Hassona from Gaza, Palestine in 2016, and Elif Ozturk from Turkey this year.

Among the members of this year’s jury were Cheriss May, J.B. Forbes, Shoun Hill, Marie D. De Jesus, Alex Wong, Preston Gannaway, Adrees Latif, Alysia Burton Steele, Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez, Deanne Fitzmaurice, Steph Chambers, Jose Carlos Fajardo, Elizabeth Cheng Krist, Alyssa Schukar, Katie Orlinsky, Ron Tarver, Samantha Appleton, Michael Robinson Chavez, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Carl-Pillipe Juste, Sue Morrow, Brian Palmer, Shaminder Dulai, Julie Winokur, Jasmine Goldband, Avi Gupta, Deb Pang Davis and Brett Roegiers.

The annual photo competition is a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism in the US and has been awarding the best photojournalism since 1944. The awards are given in various categories following a review by an expert jury in the field of press photography every year.

Anadolu Agency sets itself apart

Anadolu Agency covers the latest developments by assigning photojournalists to important centers such as the US, Russia, France, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Palestine, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Colombia, Pakistan, and Bosnia Herzegovina and its freelance photojournalist network in other countries.

Anadolu Agency’s recent breakthroughs are followed by the domestic and foreign press and thanks to its cooperation agreements, especially with AFP Image Forum and Getty Images.

Anadolu Agency’s images are featured in leading publications such as Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Telegraph, Paris Match, and Newsweek.

Anadolu Agency participated in the world’s largest news photography festival, Visa Pour L’Image, held in Perpignan, France and the agency also organized the Istanbul Photo Awards.

Anadolu Agency, one of the leading photo producers in the world, publishes an average of 3,000 photos every day.

With its website anadoluimages.com, Anadolu Agency also opened its photography, video, and multimedia content to the world from a single platform.