Winners of 2007 OSCE Photo Contest announced

VIENNA, 18 May 2007 - The winners of the 2007 OSCE photo contest "Land and water, protecting our fragile environment", which attracted hundreds of entries from many of the Organization's participating States, were announced today.

The main prize was awarded to Shamil Zhumatov from Kazakhstan for a photo series about the Aral Sea.

"The story of the Aral Sea, which has shrunk to less than half its original size and turned salty as irrigation diversion slowly drained what was once one of the world's largest inland bodies of water, has been told many times," said Ambassador Carlos Sanchez de Boado y de la Valgoma, the Head of the Spanish Delegation to the OSCE.

"But we found that the winning photos by Shamil Zhumatov not only show the despair of the people living in the area, but also reflect on some of the positive changes. After the construction of a new dam and other projects in the northern part of the Aral, Kokaral, fresh water is coming back. This is helping to restore hope and a modest degree of prosperity to a region devastated by a disappearing Sea and the Soviet collapse, and the winning images reflect on this."

Runners-up included Gentian Shkullaku (Albania), Drago Vejnovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Eric Gourlan (France), Bela Szandelszky (Hungary), Driton Pacarada (Kosovo), Shavkat Boltaev (Uzbekistan).

A gallery of winning images can no longer be found on this page, as a two-year time limit for display of the photos has now passed.

The winner will receive a Canon EOS-30D camera kit, and the runners-up will get cash prizes of $500 each.

The contest, organized on the initiative of the OSCE Spanish Chairmanship, was open to photographers living or working in the OSCE region.

"I believe all of the photographs that made it to the final are strong illustrations of what is happening with our fragile environment, including the story about floods in Hungary, pollution in Kosovo, scarce water supplies in Uzbekistan, and blazing fuel tanks in Albania," added Ambassador Carlos Sanchez de Boado.

The winning photographs were chosen from a total of 1,724 images, submitted by both professional and amateur photographers from 36 out of the 56 OSCE participating States.

The judging took place at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna between 4 and 8 May.

The contest was held to mark the 15th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, which will be held in Prague from 21 to 23 May. An exhibition of the winning images will be displayed at the Forum and featured on the OSCE website.

This year the theme of the Forum is "Key challenges to ensure environmental security and sustainable development in the OSCE area: Land degradation, soil contamination and water management".