site.btaTwo BTA Photographers Distinguished in Editorial Photography Competition

BTA photographers Minko Chernev and Hristo Stefanov won awards in the annual competition for editorial photography, BG Press Photo. The winners in the competition were named during a ceremony on June 8. Minko Chernev won First Prize for a single snapshot taken at the border between Ukraine and Moldova in the early days of the Ukraine war. The photo shows Ukrainian refugees who have crossed the border from Ukraine into Moldova via the Palanka checkpoint. BTA's Burgas-based photographer Hristo Stefanov was awarded for a series of photos of a potter in the southern town of Zlatograd.

BG Press Photo Foundation leader Tsvetan Tomchev called Chernev's photo "very powerful" and "moving". "The picture is symbolic and very expressive. Even if you don't know the background and even if you haven't read the caption, you will immediately know what it is about when you see the people," he said.

Minko Chernev said: "On the second day of the war, we were in Odessa where we took pictures of the evacuation of Bulgarian citizens from the Bulgarian consulate there. From there, we got on two buses and we crossed the border into Moldova via the Palanka checkpoint. It was there that I took pictures of the people as they were leaving Ukraine and going into Moldova."

Stefanov said that even the nomination along was "a huge recognition" for him because he has only been a photo journalist for a year. "I have been taking pictures since childhood but I have been a photo journalist with BTA only for a year," he said.

It was the 21st edition of the BG Press Photo competition. It was first held in 2022 by the BG Press Photo Foundation with the purpose of supporting Bulgarian photo journalism and popularizing high professional standards; educating professionals and amateurs; organizing exhibitions and lectures and preserving visual memory.

Awards are given in eight categories: Sport; Politics; Culture, festivals and traditions; Nature and environmental protection; War, disasters and accidents; Portrait; Social Photography ; and Shavarsh Artin Humanistic Photography.

Close to 40 photographers entered for the competition.