4 Eastern European photographers win awards at the 2020 World Press Photo Contest
Four Eastern European photographers have received awards at the 2020 World Press Photo Contest.
Nothing Personal — the Back Office of War, by Russian photographer Nikita Teryoshin, won first prize in the Contemporary Issues category, and was nominated for World Press Photo of the Year. Teryoshin’s award-winning shot depicts a businessman at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, one of the biggest arms trade-fairs in the world. Teryoshin was raised in St Petersburg and now lives in Berlin.
Image: Nikita Teryoshin
Also nominated for World Press Photo of the Year, Awakening, by Polish photographer Tomek Kaczor, took home the first prize for the Portraits, Singles category. Powerful and poignant, his award-winning shot portrays Ewa, a 15-year-old Armenian girl who has recently woken from catatonic state in a refugee reception center in Podkowa Lešna, Poland.
Image: Tomek Kaczor/Gazeta Wyborcza
Between Right and Wrong, a compelling photo story by Minsk-based Tatsiana Tkachova, received second prize in the Portraits, Stories category. Through anonymous, intimate shots, Tkachova’s photo project reconstructs the anonymous narratives of women who had abortions around the time of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, unveiling the taboos around the topic in modern-day Belarus.
Image: Tatsiana Tkachova
Lithuanian photographer Tadas Kazakevičius won third prize in the Portraits, Stories category with his project Between Two Shores. Combining wide nature shots with telling portraits, Kazakevičius’ photo story paints a vivid picture of the Curonian Spit, a sand-dune stretching from Kaliningrad Oblast, in Russia, to southern Lithuania.
Image: Tadas Kazakevičius
Now in its 63rd iteration, the World Press Photo Foundation announced the results of its acclaimed annual photo prize on Thursday 16 April. Selected by an independent jury, the prize-winning photographs are chosen based on their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about the world.
Every year, all nominated photographers have their work exhibited in the World Press Photo year-long exhibition, which travels to 50 countries. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the exhibition’s stops have been cancelled or postponed, with the hope of being able to showcase the award-winning works later on in the year.
