We are announcing a new award - Photo of the Year!
This year the International YRE Jury decided to select a Photo of the Year - a special award separate from all the competition winners. The jury selected the photo deemed most interesting and valuable in presenting the message of the YRE programme.
The 2020 Photo of the Year is....
Aysun Sökmen at Gündönümü Farm in Çerkezköy (Turkey)
"In 2020, the YRE International Competition's Photo of the Year came down to two powerful contenders. Following a trend initiated in 2019, the selected photograph brings into sharp focus the human causes and the human consequences of environmental degradation, shedding an instant light — and humanity — on the complex, nuanced challenges we collectively face. Unanimously picked by the jury after fierce debate, the photo comes from Turkey and it portrays farmer Aysun Sökmen, at Gündönümü Farm in Çerkezköy. The image was part of a five-photo series awarded 1st Place in the Photo Reportage category.
This reportage focuses on the "new rurals/new pioneers who started [a] back-to-the-land movement [and] have applied alternative models against [eminent] ecological apocalypse”. It offers insight into societal changes underfoot in this generation that feels shortchanged by economic development and environmental decadence. Aysun’s captivating and pensive face captured all of this in a single shot. In her eyes locked on the horizon the jury perceived a sense of hopefulness, and yet a certain sadness, or perhaps anguish caused by the Sisyphical task ahead. But her hands cast toward the foreground of photo are perhaps symbolically steeped into the manure she’s using to reclaim the land. In its simplicity, this photograph packs a serious punch, and it showcases YRE's ideals and search for solutions."
P.J. Marcellino (Portuguese-Canadian filmmaker, and a former YRE
Head of Development, Anatomy of Restlessness Films
Founder, Baobab Film Collective), on behalf of the 2020 Jury.
The photo was part of the photo reportage "Five alternative solution models to the eco-apocalypse from the new rurals" by the YRE students from Turkey:
Elif Pınar Sevinç, Tarık Bayri, İlker Can Koçulu, Selin Gürel, Ozan Gümüşoğlu, Ayşenur Ataseven, Alperen Alaş, Emre Uzunoğlular, Aytek Başkan, Şevval İpek, Harun Gecü and Zeynep Lara Yüce