Jury
Photo by Sarah Isaacs
Ami Vitale
Photographer and Filmmaker
Ami is an Ambassador for Nikon and a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine. Her journey as a photographer, writer and filmmaker have taken her to over 100 countries where she has witnessed civil unrest and violence, but also surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. She has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit-all in keeping with her philosophy of "living the story".
Photo by Behrouz Mehri
Behrouz Mehri
AFP Chief Photographer for Japan
Behrouz has been working with Agence France-Press as a photographer since 1998. He was a photo editor and then regional photo deputy at AFP North Africa and Middle East headquarters before moving to Japan. He has done many missions in Afghanistan since 2001 to cover news and feature stories. Behrouz studied photography at Tehran University and then started his photojournalism career in Iranian newspapers in 1995 until he joined AFP. He has a passion for documentary photography to show the human condition.
Photo by Jean-Michel Voge
Cyril Drouhet
Director of Reportage and Photography at Le Figaro Magazine
Cyril has been working at Le Figaro Magazine since 2004. A former reporter and historian by training, he has sat on several international prize giving juries. He worked as editor of Gamma News Agency from 1999 to 2002. He is also the exhibition curator at the La Gacilly Festival, the largest outdoor photography festival, which attracts more than 350,000 visitors each year in France. He has exhibited work from some of the world's best-known photographers that deal with the relationship between Man and Nature
Photo by Alize Le Maoult
Dimitri Beck
Director of Photography at Polka Magazine
Dimitri is a founding member of Polka Magazine which was established in 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he ran the Aina photo agency in Kabul and trained Afghan photographers. He was also editor-in-chief of the bilingual French-English magazine "Les Nouvelles de Kaboul / New Afghanistan". Dimitri began his career as a freelance journalist in 1998 and has worked frequently in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. He regularly speaks at conferences on photojournalism and teaches at the Journalism Department of Sciences Po Institute in Paris.
Photo by Benedicte Kurzen / NOOR
Kadir van Lohuizen
Photojournalist
Amsterdam-based Kadir van Lohuizen is an international photojournalist and co-founder of NOOR photo agency. Working freelance for his entire career, Kadir has covered conflicts in Africa and elsewhere, but is probably best known for his long-term projects on seven of the world's great rivers, the diamond industry, contemporary migration in the Americas and his 'Where Will We Go' investigation into the human consequences of rising sea levels. He has received numerous prizes for his work, including two World Press Photo awards.