TOURMAG / Sonbahar 2021

Photography
Istanbul Photo Awards increases
visibility and audience
Winning at the Istanbul Photo Awards contest gives photographers an opportunity to
publicize their work, thus increasing its visibility and audience, said photojournalist
Fabio Bucciarelli, this year’s first prize winner in the Story News category.
As the world struggled amid the difficulties
that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought
with itself, Anadolu Agency’s Istanbul Photo
Awards drew attention to what has been going
on throughout the globe with the power
of photos. Fabio Bucciarelli is among the
photojournalists who spoke to people from
all around the world about how the deadly
virus affected everyday life with the photos
he took in Italy in early 2020.
“I gained exclusive access to Red Cross
workers who were going from door to door
to check on those who were infected. It was
an intimate view of the devastating way
the coronavirus was tearing apart family
after family”, he said. Mentioning that he
visited hospitals full of Covid-19 patients, he
described his connection with the families
as “so intensive that, in the most tragic
cases, they allowed me to follow them to
cemeteries for the pared-down yet poignant
ceremonies that only the closest relatives
could attend.”
Stressing that he has always tried to draw
empathy to the people he photographed
while also caring for human rights, he told:
“My main focus has always been the interpretation
of this feeling and the creation of
a coherent iconography.” Talking about the
importance of independent, visual journalism,
he signified one would have never
known what is happening in Syria or Libya
had photographers not “documented the
war at their risk”.
He sees professional, independent journalism
as the key to fight ignorance, fake
news, and propaganda. “Winning an award
is always an important gratification and
recognition of the work done. But the main
objective remains the ultimate goal of the
journalistic work, which is to spread information
and knowledge by bringing the content
to public attention. Winning at the Istanbul
Photo Awards gives a further important diffusion
to the work done, increasing visibility
and audience”, said Bucciarelli.
"ALL I WANT IS TO REFLECT TRUTH"
Ugur Yildirim, a photojournalist at Turkey’s
Sabah newspaper, won second prize In the
Story News category for his work in Nagorno-Karabakh.
He visually recorded the
12 Ekim / Kasım / Aralık | 2021
October / November / December