The dialogue was held in the format of a relay: Moscow – Istanbul – Belgrade – Amman – Novosibirsk – Abu Dhabi – Rio de Janeiro – Mexico City.
The press center of the Rossiya Segodnya Media Group in Moscow was attended by the Executive Director of Stenin International Press Photo Contest, director of united photo information directorate of Rossiya Segodnya Media Group Alexander Shtol, senior lecturer of the Department of Photojournalism and Media Technologies of Lomonosov Moscow State University Maria Romakina and the head of the department of organizational, protocol and exhibition activities of the Executive Directorate of the Russian Geographical Society Anastasia Kadrgulova.
Anton Unitsyn, a documentary photographer from Novosibirk (Russia), Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman (Turkiye), a photojournalist from Anadolu Ajansı and a member of the organizing committee of the İstanbul Photo Awards, co-founder and creative director of Ayni Studios Noah Beilin (UAE), curator of Belgrade Photo Month Sinisa Vlajkovic (Serbia), curator of The Image Festival Amman Linda Al Khoury from Jordan, curator of Paraty em Foco International Photo Festival Paulo Marcos M. Lima from Brazil, and exhibition and communications coordinator of the Mexico City Street Photography Festival - MXSPF Citlali Medal (Mexico) joined the event online. The dialogue was moderated by Anastasia Alyamovskaya, project head for the international cooperation directorate of the Rossiya Segodnya Media Group.
The experts noted the special significance of visual storytelling in the modern society and to presented their original methods of developing and supporting the photo community in their countries and internationally.
“Photography is not just a beautiful picture. It is something that affects our lives, it is a philosophical and layer-by-layer discovery of life,” Alexander Shtol noted.
Speaking about the history of the Stenin Photo Contest, Shtol emphasized that the goal of the project is to support young photojournalists in their quest for professional excellence: “Since the launch of the competition in 2014, we have annually convened an international jury of respected professionals. Over 10 years, more than 4,500 photographers from 130 countries have taken part in the competition, and about 50,000 photographs have been submitted.”
Anastasia Kadrgulova spoke about the large-scale wildlife photo contest “The Most Beautiful Country”, which the Russian Geographical Society has been organizing for 10 years: “During this time we have received more than 730,000 works from 110,000 participants. Among them, there were both professional photographers and amateurs who captured the incredible beauty of our country. Now the Museum of Naval Glory in the “Island of Forts” is holding an exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of the contest.”
The event was orgasined by Stenin International Press Photo Contest and Rossiya Segodnya Media Group.
Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, organized by the Rossiya Segodnya International Media Group under the patronage of the Russian Commission for UNESCO, aims to support young photographers and attract public attention to the challenges of photojournalism today. An integral part of the contest is an international exhibition tour of the winners' works. During its existence, the best works have been exhibited in dozens of countries around the world, including Russia, China, India, Italy, Indonesia, South Africa, UAE, Argentina and the UN headquarters in New York.
The contest’s general media partners are VGTRK (All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company) (Russia), online platform SMOTRIM (Russia), Russia-Kultura national state TV channel (Russia), and Moskva-24 TV channel (Russia).
The contest’s international media partners are Sputnik News Agency and Radio (International), RT TV channel and website (International), Independent Media (South Africa), ANA News Agency (South Africa), Shanghai United Media Group (SUMG) (China), China Daily newspaper website (China), The Paper website (China), and Al Mayadeen (Lebanon).
The competition is supported by the Russia Union of Journalists, YOung JOurnalists (Russia), Russian Photo (Russia), and Photo-study.ru (Russia) as industry partners.