MOSCOW, June 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Professionals and photojournalism enthusiats showed great interest in the exhibition of works by winners of World Press Photo 2014 international contest which Moscow hosted in mid-May, ITAR-TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov said on Wednesday.
"The World Press Photo contest is the most prestigious and established review in photojournalism," Mikhailov said. "ITAR-TASS exhibition 'Our Crimea' is no less popular. The archive contains rare photos of Crimea, which we hope to show not only in Moscow but also in other cities."
World Press Photo contest
World Press Photo, organized by ITAR-TASS and the Fedotok non-profit partnership, will finish its work in Moscow on June 12. Since May 15, thousands of visiitors to ARTplay Design Center have seen 200 photos made by winners of the World Press Photo 2014 contest from different countries.
The contest's finals took place in Amsterdam on February 14, 2014. An independent jury comprising 19 professionals in photojournalism and documentary photography reviewed more than 98,600 works by 5,700 authors from 132 countries. Prizes were awarded to 53 authors from 25 countries.
At the Moscow exhibition, viewers saw some 200 photos which World Press Photo 2014 coordinator Lawrence Korteweg said were a spectacular example of free journalism.
For example, they show the Syrian conflict and consequences of Typhoon Haiyan on the Philippines, a family of Bonobo apes from the Kokolopori preserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a puma in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
Grand Prix was awarded this year to US photographer John Stenmeyer. The jury also noted three best Russian works. Danila Tkachenko was first in the Staged Portrait category for his series "Flight" about the people who had decided to isolate themselves from the society and live as hermits in the wild. The third place in this category was taken by Nikita Shokhov with a seriesof photos about the Island of Utrish, a preserve on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Photographer Yelena Chernyshova, who presented a series of pictures about Norilsk, took the third place in the Daily Life category.
'Our Crimea' exhibition
Many representatives of Russia's political beau monde visited the display 'Our Crimea' within the framework of World Press Photo 2014. It presented more than 50 unique pictures from the ITAR-TASS archive tdevoted to important and most interesting events in Crimea over the past century. Officials from the Kremlin administration and both houses of the Russian parliament praised the historical and cultural significance of the photos which were part of the peninsula's historic record.
"The role of ITAR-TASS in creating the information space of the country should not underestimated, because historical photos in our country began to appear simultaneously with the establishment of the St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency. I liked best the photos evoking reminiscences which can take us 100 years back, showing household things and even the weather," first deputy head of presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin told ITAR-TASS.
Deputy speaker of the State Duma Sergei Zheleznyak noted the photo of Yuri Gagarin which he said showed how comfortable the planet's first cosmonaut felt in Crimea.
After the exhibition closes in Moscow, it will move to large cities and cultural centers of the world, such as St Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, Hamburg, Milan, Sydney, Santiago, Madrid, Prague, Oxford and Macao.