Call for Entries: Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest
The International Press Photo Contest named after Andrei Stenin, a Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist who died in the line of duty in southeastern Ukraine, began accepting submissions for its fifth year — the start date always falls on Stenin’s birthday, December 22. Entries from young photographers aged 18 to 33 will be accepted on the contest’s website, stenincontest.com, until February 28, 2019.
The Stenin Contest is the only competition in Russia that discovers new names in international photojournalism and develops standards of quality for documentary photography. The contest is aimed at supporting young photojournalists and helping them on the world photojournalism stage.
In 2019, five years since the contest was established, the contenders will compete in five categories: the usual four — Top News, Sport, My Planet, and Portrait. A Hero of Our Time — plus a new one, Inspiration. Entries in this new category must be single photographs depicting either the cause or expression of inspiration, such as nature, ethnic or genre photos, and portraits of children and adults shot using various techniques and styles. The contenders can submit one single image and one series entry in every category.
Photographs must have been taken after January 1, 2018. In exceptional cases, series of photographs started in previous years are accepted. In such case, the last photograph of the series must have been taken in 2018 or 2019.
In 2018 young photographers from 77 countries scattered. The 2018 winners represent 14 countries, including photographers from Russia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belarus, Kenya and South Africa. Russia, Iran and Belarus lead in the number of entries, followed by India, Israel, Spain and South Africa.
About 6000 entries from young photographers were assessed by leading figures in international and Russian photography and art.
The prize money for this year’s first, second and third place winners will be 100,000, 75,000 and 50,000 rubles (approximately $1,500, $1,120 and $750), respectively. The Grand Prix winner will receive 700,000 rubles (approximately $10,470). Another perk of winning is having your work showcased both in Russia and around the world in a travelling exhibition that has become a fixture of the contest and already reached dozens of major cities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
“The Andrei Stenin Contest is expanding its presence on the global stage of photojournalism. Our finalists say that young photographers who want to improve their skills see the contest as a must. There are few countries from which we have not received any interesting entries yet. We invite young photojournalists from around the world to take part in the 2019 contest and wish them all the best,” contest curator Oksana Oleinik, head of the Visual Projects Service of the Rossiya Segodnya United Photo Information Directorate, said.
In 2018, the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contestwas supported by major Russian and international media outlets, news agencies and the photography community. Partners in several categories included the Shanghai United Media Group (SUMG), the Al Mayadeen TV pan-Arabic news network and the International Committee of the Red Cross, one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations.
Jury
The jury will comprise the world’s renowned photographers famous for their ability to present diverse views on the world.
2019 jury board: James Hill, The New York Times photographer since 1995; Peter Bitzer, renown German photographer; Juan Arredondo, Colombian American documentary photographer, Cho Bo Hee, Deputy department head at the leading Korean news agency Yonhap; Alice Gabriner, head of photography and international photo editor at TIME since 1999; Sergei Ilnitsky, staff photographer for EPA in Moscow since 2003.
About the contest:
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest was launched by Rossiya Segodnya under the aegis of the Russian Commission for UNESCO. Its main goal is to support young photographers and draw public attention to the challenges of modern photojournalism. This contest is a platform for young photographers; talented, empathetic and open-minded, they draw our attention to people and events around us.
In 2019 the general media partners of the contest include the news website Vesti.Ru and the Russian state Rossiya-Kultura TV channel. The international information partners of the contest include Sputnik International Information Agency and Radio, Askanews Information Agency, Independent Media Holding, Notimex News Agency, ANA News Agency, RT channel and website, Shanghai United Media Group (SUMG), China Daily website, PNA news agency, AlYoum AlSabee newspaper and website, The Paper website, and Al Mayadeen media network. The industry partners supporting the contest are the Russian Photo and Photo-study.ru websites, School of Visual Arts, Academy of Photography, the YOung JOurnalists information portal, the Contrastes magazine, the Fotoargenta magazine, the All About Photo website, and PhotON festival as an international partner.
Information
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest
December 22, 2018 to February 28, 2019
