Organized by Turkish Airlines, the winners of “Skylife Photography Contest” received their awards

The winners of the “Skylife Photography Contest”, which is organized by Turkish Airlines, received their awards during the award ceremony held this night in İstanbul.

Organized internationally for the third year, the theme of this year’s “Skylife Photography Contest” was “Discover”. Tonight’s award ceremony at the Zorlu Performing Arts Center was attended by Turkey’s Education Minister Ziya Selçuk, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee M. İlker Aycı.

            Minister Selçuk, Minister Çavuşoğlu and Mr. Aycı presented the awards of the top three contestants during the night. The winner of the Turkish Airlines Grand Prize was Fei Xie while Turkish Airlines Second Prize was won by Mustafa Kurtbaş and Turkish Airlines Third Prize went to Thi Ha Maung.

            During the night, the awards of the Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FIAP) category, which boasts over a million individual photographers as members along with near 100 national associations, was given by FIAP President Riccardo Busi. FIAP Gold Medal award went to Babak Mehrafshar, FIAP Silver Medal was won by Manabendra Bhattacharjee and presented to FIAP Turkey representative Yusuf Biton in his name while FIAP Bronze Medal was won by Sabri Altın which was given to Ali Fuat Altın in his name.

            Considered as one of the most influential international photography communities, Global Photographic Union’s(GPU) category’s gold and bronze medallion awards was given by actor Engin Altan Düzyatan, one of the guests of the night. GPU Gold Medal winner Maria Cristina Garzone and TFSF Board Member and Secretary General Duygu Nazire Kaşıkçı representing GPU Bronze Medal winner Sujan Sarkar received their awards from the famous actor. TheGPU Silver Medal winner Massimo Tommi received his award from photography artist and FIAP honorary medalist İzzet Keribar.

Photographic Arts Federation of Turkey (TFSF) category’s gold and silver medallion winners received their awards from TFSF Board Member and Secretary General Duygu Nazire Kaşıkçı. TFSF Gold Medal award went to Süleyman Üzümcü while TFSF Silver Medal was awarded to İbrahim Aysündü. TFSF Bronze Medal winner Eshagh Aghaei was presented his award by TFSF Board Member and Istanbul Representative Tülay Emek.

            Winner of the ‘Most Displayed Award’ Maria Cristina Garzone received her award from photography artistİzzet Keribar.

            Matt Meisenheimer, Ovi D. Pop, Abhijit Banerjee, Ee Long Tan, Abhishek Purohit, Mahfuzul Hasan Bhuiyan and Vinod Kulkarni were the honorable mentions that could not attend the ceremony.

            Famous photography artist İzzet Keribar also presented FIAP Honorable Mention Award to Ali Riza İzgi, and GPU Honorable Mention Award to Valter Bernardeschi.

            Before the night’s conclusion with a photo shoot, Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee M. İlker Aycı said; “We are proud to represent our country in 316 cities of the world as the most globally well-known brand ambassador of Turkey. With that in mind, we do not limit our area of activity to solely flight operations but also enjoy building innumerable bridges between cultures and communities as the Turkey’s national flag carrier by connecting countries and civilizations via cultural, artistic and sportive events with the inspiration taken from our centuries-old connective and inclusive heritage. Organized for the third time this year, our Skylife Photography Contest is one of our activities that serve this purpose. Although it is only three years old, it brought a new wind to its field. I thank all our attendees in the name of our global brand ambassador for their interest and congratulate the winners of the awards.”

            Organized by the global brand for the third time, photography contest started back in January 15, 2019 and application period was concluded in August 26. During this period, 11,455 photographs from 115 countries were uploaded to the database of Photographic Arts Federation of Turkey (TFSF). The photos collected in the system were reviewed by an international jury that came together in İstanbul on August 31 – September 1. 

            Consisted of Riccardo Busi and Ammamoil Matzakis, the Presidents of FIAP and GPU respectively, two biggest and most important photography art federations, photography artists Yadid Levy, İzzet Keribar and Ercan Akçay, the jury determined the award winners, honorable mentions and exhibition selection after two days of deliberations.