MOSCOW, October 20, Anastasia Silkina. The Andrei Stenin International Photojournalism Competition has summed up its results for the ninth time. Among the winners are several Russians. About what was captured by their lenses is in the material.
Trend: war as a reflection of reality
This year more than three thousand works from 54 countries were sent. The age of photographers is from 18 to 33 years. There are more photographs on military themes, said Dmitry Kiselev, General Director of MIA Rossiya Segodnya.
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“But the war is perceived in a completely different way in these photographs,” he noted. — There are different ways of understanding the world: there is a scientific one, and there is an artistic one. And photographs are the creation of artistic images of the modern world; they give us a new layer of perception. We understand the world more deeply, more acutely, more accurately.”
Jury member Pavel Volkov admitted that in evaluating works he tried to avoid unambiguous criteria.
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"Photography is a thing that is very difficult to fit into some kind of formula. You need to feel it, and not figure out whether the aperture, shutter speed, etc. are correct. A competition is a creative space where the photographer has more freedom. We must encourage the author's view,” he said.
It was the author’s view of the events of a special military operation that the jury appreciated in the “Glow” series of Russian photojournalist Alexei Orlov, who was awarded the Grand Prix. He filmed this in March 2022 during a business trip to a special operation zone.
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"At that time I was also there and took photographs. Many people filmed this, but I would like to note that in Alexey’s photographs there is more of the author than the editor, and this is their advantage,” Volkov explained.
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According to the photographer, those days became the most difficult in his life, because he “saw people who were experiencing this in the cities of Donetsk and Mariupol.” His goal was a collective image of a city whose peaceful days were over, the fate of its inhabitants, often deprived of “everything but hope.”
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"I needed the photographs to be seen. Since the competition is international, its audience is very important. “I wanted to show what’s going on, to show the truth,” says Alexey.
Second place in the “Main News” category went to Taisiya Vorontsova’s work “We Just Need to Wait.” This is a phrase from a resident of Gorlovka, whose destroyed apartment was photographed by a photographer after another shelling of the city.
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«Wait for what?» — I asked. “Peace and peace again,” she replied. Residents of Donbass have lived with this thought for nine long years,” says Vorontsova. “These photographs are about those who decided to stay in their homeland, no matter what.”
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The jury also noted a single photograph by Pelagia Tikhonova “Remembering the 45th”: an aviation flyover at the dress rehearsal of the air part of the military parade for the 77th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War war.
““As a former newsman, I understand that behind each of the frames in this nomination there is some kind of story. This is a special genre: a momentary reflection of reality, but there is always a backstory, and something happens later,” said, presenting the award, head of Rossotrudnichestvo Evgeny Primakov.
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The author of the shot modestly noted that it turned out “easy.”
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“Everyone filmed this moment, but, of course, everyone has their own point of view, their own point,” she added.
Not only about war: the Northern Sea Route and sporting success
Third place in the “My Planet” category went to the series “Northern Sea Route” by Vera Vakulova. The documentary filmmaker captured the work and life of polar explorers, Arctic landscapes, the northern lights and even a polar bear.
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"Nomination «Sport» requires great happiness of the photographer. Is it possible to take a photo by accident? It’s possible, but you just have to remember that you need to prepare very seriously for this eventuality,” noted the head of the Joint Directorate of Photo Information at MIA Rossiya Segodnya. Alexander Shtol.
Here the winner (for the third time) was Sergei Bobylev. His “Energy of Victory” is dedicated to Russian athletes at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022.
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“I wanted to choose the most vivid pictures of the Olympics, while also being informationally important,” he explained.
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In single sports photography, first place was awarded to Edgar Breshchanov. In the photo “Fight to the last drop,” he captured Yegor Noskov from the youth CSKA in a match with his peers from the Moscow Torpedo. Trying to keep the ball in the field, the football player made a tackle and fell into a puddle, but this did not stop him.
““This episode shows the player’s character and desire to fight to the end, no matter what,” the author emphasized.
The work was also noted a special prize from the Pan-Arab Information Holding «Al-Mayadeen TV» as a symbol of «the spirit of the Russian person who, in spite of everything, strives for the future.»
In second place is Evgeny Filippov with » Individual race», the hero of which was a schoolboy engaged in skiing in a deserted stadium.
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"I have been at the window in the morning for several weeks. So it’s not an accident: we just had to wait,” Filippov revealed the secret of a successful shot.
Evgenia Novozhenina’s work “View of the stadium during warm-up” earned bronze.
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"The photo was taken at the Beijing Olympics. These were the first Games for me, and I am very pleased that I became a prize-winner,” she admitted.
Vladislav Nekrasov with “Imago” won in the category “Portrait. Hero of Our Time”.
“< p>“In psychological practice, according to Jung, the imago is an unconscious image,” explains the photographer. — This image of a random passer-by in a hat with earflaps, a medical mask and with wings reminds me of a slightly tired archangel who lives next door. Unfortunately, like us, he is burdened with worldly, earthly concerns, and only his wings remind him of his main purpose.”
The winning works will be shown abroad. Exhibitions are already planned at gallery venues in India and the UAE at the beginning of 2024.
The full list of prize winners can be found on the website — in Russian and English versions.