The 10th annual Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest opened for entries on Friday to coincide with the birthday of Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin, who was killed on duty in Donbas in 2014.
The contest is an annual competition organized by Rossiya Segodnya media group to discover young talent among photojournalists aged 18 to 33. Sputnik news agency and radio is its international media partner.
“We are very pleased to launch the 10th anniversary competition, a tribute to our colleague and war correspondent Andrei Stenin. Over 10 years, it has become a truly multinational platform for young and talented photographers who are not afraid to take risks, look for new angles and express their opinions in a bright and unbiased manner”, Oksana Oleinik, the contest’s curator, said.
The contest’s anniversary edition comes with updates. A new category, “View From Above,” has been added to the existing four — “Top News”, “Sports”, “My Planet”, and “Portrait. A Hero of Our Time”. It will encourage contestants to explore a new visual perspective with a focus on unconventional subjects and settings.
The top prize is 700,000 rubles ($7,588). The first, second and third places in the contest will fetch 125,000 rubles, 100,000 rubles and 75,000 rubles, respectively.
The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest was organized by Rossiya Segodnya under the patronage of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO. It aims to support young photographers and draw public attention to the challenges of photojournalism today. It is a platform for young photographers — talented and sensitive individuals open to all things new — to highlight people and events near us.
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The Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest is open to participants aged 18 to 33. It aims to promote young photographers and support them in their strive for professional perfection.
The 2024 contest will showcase four categories for which young photographers can vie for awards:
- Top News. Important events in the life of individuals and nations as a whole are the main subject of entries in the category: major political and social events; reports from war zones and places struck by natural disasters; decisive moments in people’s lives.
- Sports. This category involves entries, which captured moments in sport: victories of athletes and dramatic losses; daily sports training; the beauty of sports competitions.
- My Planet. This category involves entries reflecting the entire multicolored palette of topics and images from all over the world. The author’s task is to show an everyday life kaleidoscope in its timeless beauty and harmony, uniting scenes from everyday life; the life of big cities and small towns; nature pictures; ethnographic and religious holidays.
- Portrait. A Hero of Our Time. This category involves entries such as individual or group portraits of people. Photos can be documentary and posed. The determining factor in this category is the author’s ability to reveal the inner world of his characters, express their mental qualities and character through the uniqueness of their appearance and looks as a whole.
- Top View. Single photographs taken from a bird’s eye view are accepted in this category. Photographs can depict plants and animals, city life, people, moments from everyday life and sporting events, and abstract imagery. The decisive factor is the shooting angle. Images can be taken using a quadcopter, a photo camera, or a mobile phone camera. We are waiting for breathtaking views and surprising stories.
In each category, there is the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize for a single photograph and for a series, respectively.
In the Sports and Top View categories, only single entries are accepted.
Entries can contain a single photograph or series of no more than 12 photographs. Minor cropping, or balance (white balance) or density (brightness, contrast) correction is acceptable. Framed images, collages, photos that have been significantly photoshopped, with parts of the image edited, deleted or replaced with a different image, will not be accepted.
Photos will be uploaded in the JPG format. The acceptable compression will not exceed 10. The image is to be no less than 2,200 pixels and no more than 5,700 pixels by its longer side.
The file name must contain the serial number of the photograph, name and last name of the author, title and year it was shot, separated by underscores, for example: 01_Smith_James_The_Spring_2011. The name of the file must be given in Latin script. The file size must not exceed 20 Mb. The file must also contain all the EXIF data.
Entries are uploaded and stored by the participant on his or her personal page at STENINCONTEST.COM. Photos can be added or replaced until the participant submits the entry. After the entry is submitted, photos can no longer be added or replaced.
Photographs must have been taken after January 1, 2023. In exceptional cases, series of photographs started in previous years are accepted. In such case, the last photograph of the series must have been taken in 2023 or 2024.
A complete list of requirements can be found in the Contest Rules.
Biography of Andrei Stenin
Andrei Stenin, a Russian photojournalist, was born on December 22, 1980, in the town of Pechora.
2003: Started his career as a journalist writing for the Society sector of Rossiyskaya Gazeta; contributed to Gazeta.ru for several years.
2008: Worked as a stringer of Russian and foreign media outlets, including Itar-TASS, RIA Novosti, Kommersant, Reuters, the Associated Press and France Press.
2009: Started working at RIA Novosti as a photojournalist.
2014: Special correspondent of the Rossiya Segodnya Integrated Directorate of Photography.
Stenin received many prizes for his photographs, most of which he made in conflict areas, including two Silver Camera awards.
Andrei Stenin was on a business trip in eastern Ukraine when he went missing on August 5, 2014. According to a source, he may have been detained by the Ukrainian security service. Campaigns in support of Stenin, #FreeAndrew, were held around the world. People in many countries expressed their concern for him, and international public and professional organizations issued statements.
On September 3, 2014, it became known that Andrei Stenin had died in early August. The car he was driving was shelled and burned up on a motorway near Donetsk.
Andrei Stenin was awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously) for bravery and heroism in the performance of his professional duties.
