MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Over 500 photos have been sent to the Andrei Stenin International Photo Contest, which Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is organizing under the auspices of the Commission of the Russian Federation for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the agency's press service said.
According to the press service, since the beginning of the contest, launched on December 22, 2015, the number of participating countries has reached 20, including France, Switzerland, Brazil, India, Finland, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Russia, Kazakhstan and others.
The organizers have chosen "Visualizing a Path to Global Understanding" as its basic subject this year in tune with the 2016 International Year of Global Understanding, as proclaimed by UNESCO.
Applications can now be submitted to the stenincontest.com website through March 22, 2016. Photographers from around the world aged 18-33 are eligible to take part in the competition.
The 2016 contest will feature five categories for photographs, namely "My Country," "World Colors. Harmony of Life," "Portraits: A Hero of Our Time," "Top News" and "Sport." Three winners will be announced in each category and a special prize, the 500,000-ruble Grand Prix will be awarded for the overall best entry.
The organizing committee announced the 2016 jury at a recent news conference in Moscow. The jury will include such world renown photo and art experts as Olga Sviblova, the founding director of Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow House of Photography) and a member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Russian photojournalist Yury Kozyrev, Director of Photography at the Geo magazine headquartered in Hamburg Ruth Eichhorn and Deputy Director of Photography at the Associated Press Denis Paquin.
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest aims to promote young photographers and attract public attention to photojournalism.