A Syrian man mourns over the body of a boy, killed in an airstrike, allegedly carried out by Russian and Syrian forces in the town of Sarmin.

Award of Excellence

Anas Alkharboutli
DPA
Syria

Anas Alkharboutli, born in 1992, studied engineering at the University of Damascus. In 2015, he began working as a photojournalist and quickly made a name for himself with his sensitive image and video recordings from the Syrian civil war and has since been awarded several international picture prizes. In early 2020, Anas Alkharboutli was honoured with an Award of Excellence in the Daily Life category at the Pictures of the Year International. Furthermore, in October 2020, he won the Young Reporter Trophy (Photo) at the 27th Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents, as well as an Honourable Mention at the 2020 UNICEF Photos of the Year. He also achieved first place at the 2020 dpa Pictures of the Year in the Story category. He also received an Award of Excellence in the Daily Life category at the Pictures of the Year International in 2021. All his award-winning pictures show life in war-torn Syria.

[ SPOT NEWS ] This is a category for non-COVID-19 single photographs of breaking news or events in which no planning was possible. Each participant is allowed to enter up to 10 images. The images must be taken in 2019 or 2020.

Judges for Spot News
Abir Abdullah
Nariman El Mofty
Bryan van der Beek
Shiho Fukada
Wonsuk Choi