Iranian photographers win top prizes in UNESCO photo competition “Show Us the Afghanistan You Are Proud Of”
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In October 2015, UNESCO together with the Afghan government initiated an awareness-raising campaign entitled, “The Afghanistan We Are Proud Of” to promote a sense of national identity and belonging through Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage, AVA Diplomatic reports.
As part of this campaign, a nation-wide photo competition invited Afghans and non-Afghans alike to submit photos of Afghanistan’s cultural and natural heritage, which makes them proud of the country.
The competition was launched on 21 October 2015 and ended on 21 March 2016.
The winners were selected anonymously by an independent jury of five photographers, including Rada Akbar, Reza Deghati (President of Jury and prominent Iranian-French photojournalist), Reza Yemak, Sadie Quarrier and Simon Norfolk.
Out of an astonishing 3033 photos submitted in mobile-phone and camera photograph categories, Iranian photographer Ali Hamed-Haqdust won the first prize in the camera photograph category. The second and third prizes in that category went to Reza Sahel and Mohammad-Ali Sheida respectively.
In the mobile-phone category, Iranian photographer Hamidreza Rahmani was awarded the first prize, and the second and third prizes went to Afghan photographers Najeeb Azad and Nasrullah Alili respectively.
The winning Camera Photos will receive the first prize of 5000 US dollars, and second and third prizes of 4000 and 3000 US dollars. The three top Mobile photos will receive 2000 US dollars each.
The jury commented on the first winning photo taken by Mr. Ali Hamed Haghdoust, saying that “the photographer of the winning contest image of the carousel made a strong composition, getting down on the ground and shooting up so the whole sky is filled with the circling horses. The action, youth, and color in this image speaks to the future, but also gives a nod to traditional past as the children are leaning off of their horses to pick up a coin, imitating their national game of Buzkashi.”
