Contestants aged between 18 and 33 will compete in five categories, which are "Top News," "Sport," "My Planet," and "Portrait. A Hero of Our Time" as well as a new one "Inspiration." The deadline for applications, which can be submitted through the stenincontest.ru website, is February 29.
"The Andrei Stenin Contest is entering a new phase in 2020. We marked the first five years in 2019, and we would like the next five, ten or more years to see the competition develop and grow dynamically. We are looking forward to even more participants next year, and more interesting works. Discovering new names in photography is an incredibly exciting and responsible task, and I'm sure the international jury will do a great job in 2020. We invite young photojournalists from around the world to participate in the 2020 contest and we wish them all good luck," Oksana Oleinik, the curator of the photo contest and the head of the Visual Projects Service at Rossiya Segodnya, said.
The winner of the highest Stenin competition award – the Grand Prix – receives 700,000 rubles ($11,200). Cash awards for the first, second and third places in each category will be 125,000, 100,000 and 75,000 rubles respectively.
In addition, young photojournalists will get an opportunity to display their works at Russian and international venues as a world tour of the best photos has become an integral part of the project.
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest was launched by Rossiya Segodnya under the aegis of the Russian Commission for UNESCO to support young photographers and draw public attention to the challenges of modern photojournalism. It is named after Rossiya Segodnya's photo correspondent — Andrei Stenin — who was killed while covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.