Jury

Yuri Kozyrev is a Russian photojournalist, and one of the founders of the NOOR photo agency. He was born on October 20, 1963 in Moscow. Kozyrev graduated from Moscow State University’s Faculty of Journalism. Yuri kicked off his professional career in photography in the late 1980s. Early on in his occupation as a special photojournalist for the LA Times, he covered the events related to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then the most important topic of his photography career was the armed conflict in Chechnya. In 2001, after the events of September 11, Yuri worked in Afghanistan. He spent 2003 to 2009 in Iraq, shooting different sides of the conflict there for Time magazine. Back in February 2011, Kozyrev covered the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings and their aftermath in Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia, as well as in Egypt and Libya. In 2015-2016, the photojournalist decided to take a rest from armed conflicts and selected non-military projects by delving deeper into Russia in search of stories depicting everyday life. Kozyrev has collaborated with such renowned publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Times, Time Magazine, Het Parool, Elseiver, Ogonyok, Itogi and a number of other media. He is a six-time World Press Photo laureate, and a recipient of Visa Pour l'Image International Photojournalism Festival, and the 2011 Trophee and Public Prizes at the Prix Bayeux-Calvados Award. In August 2020, he was bestowed with the Kamerton prize, honoring the late Anna Politkovskaya, including for reporting from the "red zone" of the 52nd Moscow hospital, where patients with COVID-19 were being treated.