Croatian and Slovak photographers scoop Nikon awards

Photographers Tomislav Veić (Croatia) and Anna Opinová (Slovakia) have won first prize in their respective categories at the prestigious Nikon Photo Contest 2016 — 2017.

Tomislav Veić took home first place in the Nikon 100th Anniversary Award for his image When Lanterns Flying in the Sky, which captures Zagreb’s annual December lantern ceremony. Encapsulating the award’s theme of “Celebration”, the 2016 ceremony saw hundreds of people gather in front of the National Library in the Croatian capital to launch lanterns, with each one meant to represent Christmas wishes and hopes for the coming year.

Young Slovak photographer Anna Opinová won the Next Generation Award: Single Photo with her enigmatic black and white image Mysterious. Designed for photographers under the age of 30, the theme of this year’s Next Generation Award was “Future”.

A post shared by Anna Opinova (@annaopinova) on Nov 30, 2016 at 6:11am PST

A number of New East photographers also featured among the competition runners-up. Check out the full list of winners here.