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AFP receives six awards at Pictures of the Year International
The 75th Pictures of the Year International competition honours five AFP photo journalists.
Kirill Kudryavtsev won 2nd place in the "Sports Action" category for a picture taken during the Russia vs New Zealand football match at the 2017 Confederations Cup. The 37-year-old Russian began his career as a text journalist and then photographer for local newspapers in Saint-Petersburg. He started freelancing for AFP there in 2007 and in 2011 joined the Moscow bureau, where is now based.
Carlos Becerra took 3rd place in the "Spot News" category for a photograph showing a man on fire during anti-government protests in Venezuela. Suspected by the mob of being a thief, the man was lynched by a group of protesters. Carlos, 42, started working as a photographer in 2014 and freelances for various media. He is based in Caracas and has been covering the Venezuelan crisis for AFP.
Zakaria Abdelkafi received an Award of Excellence in the "Spot News" category for his image of CRS riot police officers in flames at May Day demonstrations in Paris in 2017. Originally from Aleppo in Syria, the 32-year-old recorded his experience in a post on AFP’s Making-of blog. When civil war broke out in his country in 2011, he decided to cover the conflict. He started working with AFP in 2013. In September 2015 he suffered serious injuries to his right eye while covering the fighting. He came to France for treatment and has since been based in Paris, from where he regularly works with the Agency.
Amer Almohibany received an Award of Excellence in the "General News" category for a photograph of a man in Arbin, near Damascus, gardening on the roof of his building amidst the rubble of the destruction caused by the war. The Syrian photographer, 28, regularly collaborates with AFP. He is based in the Eastern Ghouta region, a rebel enclave near Damascus that is under siege by regime forces and hit hard by air strikes.
Also in the "General News" category, Brendan Smialowski received an Award of Excellence for a portrait of former FBI director James Comey during his hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee into the circumstances of his dismissal. Brendan also won an Award of Excellence in the "News Picture Story" category for a series taken while covering Donald Trump’s presidential activities. Aged 37, he joined AFP in 2012 and is based in Washington, where he covers political news.
About AFP:
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, economics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,400 staff spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.