Submissions open for 2021 young photographers contest commemorating Andrei Stenin

An international contest for young photo journalists, commemorating photographer Andrei Stenin, who was killed during the conflict in eastern Ukraine, has opened the submissions period.

The seventh annual Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest has kicked off in Moscow. The contest, hosted by Russia’s Rossiya Segodnya news agency under the aegis of the Russian Commission for UNESCO, commemorates one of its best photographers, who was killed by shelling from Ukrainian government forces in 2014 while covering the conflict in Donbass.

The contest is open to any professional photographers between 18 and 33 years old – the age of the photographer when he died. Contestants from any country can submit their work through the contest’s website. In 2020, some 5,000 works were submitted to the contest by photographers from 75 countries.

There are four main categories: Top News, Sport, My Planet, and Portrait: A Hero of Our Time. Each participant can submit a single photo and one photo series in each of the four categories.

The contest boasts sizeable prizes, with winners in each category receiving 125,000 rubles ($1,600). Second and third place will receive 100,000 ($1,300) and 75,000 rubles ($1,000) respectively. The contest includes a Grand Prix, and the winner will receive 700,000 rubles ($9,400).

Apart from cash awards, the winning photos will be included in the contest’s touring exhibition, giving young photographers an excellent chance to reach a wider audience. Venues that have featured the exhibition include the United Nations headquarters in New York, and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

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