Nwabisa Masiza
Cape Town - From Russia with love comes the Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, on exhibition at the Eclectica Gallery in Cape Town, a venture between Russia’s state news agency Rossiya Segodnya and Independent Media.
The contest is named in honour of Stenin, a Rossiya Segodnya photographer who was killed during the 2014 war in Ukraine.
The exhibition and competition also cemented the partnership between Independent Media and Rossiya Segodnya.
“Independent is delighted to be the leading South African media partner for this exhibition of the winning entries,” said Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media.
“It is an opportunity to not only honour Andrei Stenin and photojournalists around the world, but to acknowledge photojournalism as an art and craft in documenting the human story.”
Rossiya Segodnya expressed interest in showcasing a selection of the 6 000 entries from 71 countries worldwide in South Africa, and Independent Media welcomed the opportunity to host the event.
The exhibition is Russia’s only platform to discover new photojournalists and develop high standards for documentary photography in Russia and the world.
Alexander Shtol, director of Rossiya Segodnya’s Photo Information Directorate, said: “ We are very pleased the number of participating countries has surpassed our wildest expectations.
“This can be partly explained by the respect shown for the memory of Andrei Stenin and because the photo industry is in constant development due to the rapid breakthrough of young talent.”
Russia’s consul general for Cape Town, Roman Ambarov said: “I believe this particular event is some kind of a bridge which brings people of various countries, different cultures and different arts together through photography.
“We encourage young South Africans, photojournalists, to be part of this competition and we hope to see a lot of them among the winners next year.”
Gallery owner Shamiela Tyer was delighted to have the contest winners exhibited in her gallery.
“We view this as an opportunity to revive an art form that’s long been excluded from the Fine Art realm and hope to assist in rejuvenating interest in photojournalism and perhaps photography as a whole.”
Mike Ormrod, chief executive of Orms Photography said: “Imagery can certainly inspire photojournalism and give it the momentum to carry on in the future.”
Cape Argus