Tehran: The next stop for Stenin Photo Contest roadshow

14 / 05 / 2025

The international touring exhibition of winning photographs from the 2024 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest has opened at the Howzeh Honari art center in the capital of Iran. The opening ceremony was attended by Mehr CEO Mohammad Mehdi Rahmati and Charge d’Affaires of Russia in Iran Rafael Gevorkyan.

Opening the exhibition, Mohammad Mehdi Rahmati noted:

Today’s exhibition is not simply the opening of a collection of photographs. Here, we are witnessing the opening of windows into the world of human experience; windows that tell a new story with each frame—sometimes of suffering, sometimes of hope, and always of humanity. What makes this event special is its focus on the younger generation of photographers from around the world.

Rafael Gevorkyan supported his point. In his speech, he highlighted the deep roots of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the field of photography, citing the example of a Russian photography pioneer, Anton Sevryugin, who worked at the court of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar in the 19th century and was the first to popularize photography as a genre in Iran.

Executive Director of the Contest Alexander Shtol greeted the audience on the opening of the exhibition in a video address.

Since the Stenin Contest was established in 2014, Iran has always been an important contributor to the project, and I am especially pleased to see the exhibition of winning photos open in Tehran today. Iranian photojournalists are among the most outstanding and active participants and have repeatedly become winners in various categories

The 2024 Stenin Contest roadshow has visited China, Tanzania, Serbia, DR Congo, UAE, South Africa and India.