2021 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest – Gambians Cheered To Participate

Under the patronage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the 2021 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest  is here. It is opened to participants aged 18 to 33 and aims to promote young photographers to support them in their strive for professional perfection. The contest was founded on December 22, 2014 by the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency under the auspices of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO. 

In 2021, the winner of the highest Stenin contest award – the Grand Prix – will receive 700,000 rubles (D488,000). The prize fund will be 125,000 rubles (D87,000), 100,000 rubles (D70,000) and 75,000 rubles (D52,000) for the first, second and third places respectively in each category.

The 2021 contest will showcase four categories for which young photographers can vie for awards:

1. Top News. Important events in the life of individuals and nations as a whole are the main subject of entries in the category: major political and social events; reports from war zones and places struck by natural disasters; decisive moments in people’s lives.

2. Sports. This category involves entries, which captured moments in sport: victories of athletes and dramatic losses; daily sports training; the beauty of sports competitions.

3. My Planet. This category involves entries reflecting the entire multicolored palette of topics and images from all over the world. The author’s task is to show an everyday life kaleidoscope in its timeless beauty and harmony, uniting scenes from everyday life; the life of big cities and small towns; nature pictures; ethnographic and religious holidays.

4. Portrait. A Hero of Our Time. This category involves entries such as individual or group portraits of people. Photos can be documentary and posed. The determining factor in this category is the author’s ability to reveal the inner world of his characters, express their mental qualities and character through the uniqueness of their appearance and looks as a whole.

Oksana Oleinik, the curator of the photo contest and the head of the Visual Projects Service at Rossiya Segodnya, commented the launch of the 2021 contest: “Launching another year of our contest is always like a shot of adrenalin for us. It means joyful anticipation of new works, new names, and new discoveries. This year, the start of the contest in such difficult conditions all over the world – during the COVID-19 pandemic – is also symbolic. New realities can change habits, dictate new conditions of work, but they cannot change basic values such as professionalism, the desire to create and share your ideas and vision of the world with a potential audience…

Entries are uploaded and stored by the participant on his or her personal page at STENINCONTEST.COM. Photos can be added or replaced until the participant submits the entry. After the entry is submitted, photos can no longer be added or replaced.

Photographs must have been taken after January 1, 2020. In exceptional cases, series of photographs started in previous years are accepted. In such case, the last photograph of the series must have been taken in 2020 or 2021.

A complete list of requirements can be found in the Contest Rules.