Jury 2022

Vladimir Pesnya

Photographer, jury member, and winner of multiple photography awards in Russia and internationally, including 2016 World Press Photo contest in the Sports Stories category. Vladimir worked as a sports journalist and editor for Russia’s leading titles before becoming an acclaimed photographer. He took part in multiple shows, including 15 solo exhibitions.

Xenia Nikolskaya   

Russian-Swedish photographer; Curator of international exhibition projects; Member of the Russian Artists’ Union; Curator of the ROSFOTO Russian National Centre of Photography, Head of Rossiya Segodnya exhibition project department. Taught photography at the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, American University in Cairo, and Rutgers University, New Jersey. Took part in more than 40 international exhibitions, 20 of them solo shows. Her works are preserved at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Author of the books Dust: Egypt’s Forgotten Architecture and Anatoly Garanin, Soviet Union.

Valery Melnikov  

A special correspondent for Rossiya Segodnya media group, Valery Melnikov has won many national and international photo contests, such as World Press Photo, Days Japan International Photo Journalism Award, Visual Storytelling Awards, Professional Photographer of the Year, China International Press Photo Contest, Sony WAP and other contests.

Grigory Dukor

Нead of the Photo and Video Service at TASS Russian News Agency. He has more than 30 years’ experience in photography. Began his career as commercial photographer. In the early 1990s joined the Reuters News Agency and served as Chief Photographer for Russia and CIS team for the next 20 years. As Dukor sees it, photojournalism changes with the world but is anxious to preserve its identity. Photo reporting should be its dominant form while the photographer should remain impartial.

Alexei Filippov    

Photo correspondent for Rossiya Segodnya media group, Alexei covers major sports events and international political forums. He won many major photography awards, including AIPS award silver prize. In March 2020, the National Press Photographers Association (USA) recognized him as the Best Sports Photographer of the Year.