News Photo Awards kicks off its second global contest dubbed ‘A Changing World’

The planetwide lockdown is now mostly over and we hope that the accumulated experience and the acquired know-how will help us prevent a repetition of this sort in the future. Nevertheless, things throughout the globe are changing at lightning speed, and so differently and unpredictably that people frequently just don’t have time to grasp what is going on or adapt to the situation. This concerns not only healthcare and medicine, but also politics, the economy, society, culture and many other fields, which are not only transforming by leaps and bounds, but are also swiftly reshaping and changing the daily life of billions of people.

Just like during the COVID-19 pandemic, the professional eye of photo reporters from around the world can help us see and most importantly, record these global and regional transformations. While working on the ‘frontlines’, photojournalists were the first to identify and reveal the most interesting things. Photographers captured key events for the entire globe, with many of them later becoming a crucial feature of world history, by freezing these moments in time for future generations. It is these stories recorded by professionals that will convey and show how this swiftly-changing world, this new normal, looks like in 2021.

Like last year, joining the contest is free-of-charge. Entries can be submitted by press photographers, who work or cooperate with media outlets.

The winners will be selected in four categories:

• News
• People & Lifestyle
• Нealthcare
• Environment

For each above-mentioned category, two winners will be nominated for Best Single Photo and Best Photo Series. Thus, here, in total, eight $3,000 prizes await winners. That being said, the best photo of all entered will be awarded the Grand Prize. The creator of this artwork will receive $10,000.

“Our first photo contest – News Photo Awards. Overcoming COVID – sparked enormous interest from the global professional photographer community: some 4,000 snapshots from more than 80 countries poured in for submission. All members of the jury pointed to the very high caliber of the contenstants’ works. So, we decided to hold the News Photo Awards annually,” TASS Director General Sergei Mikhailov said. “For us as one of the world’s leading news agencies, which this year also celebrates the 95th anniversary of the TASS Photo Agency, it’s very crucial to support photojournalists from various corners of the globe, who are working as professionals under various conditions, even very challenging ones,” he said, stressing that this work is difficult, tense and carries responsibilities. What’s more, he mentioned that at times the occupation is very dangerous, while also highlighting reporters’ professional skills.

Applications for the contest will be accepted until December 24, 2021. After that the jury members, who represent the world’s leading media outlets, will pick the best snapshots and choose the winners, and their names will be announced in March 2022.