RFE/RL Photographers Win Competition

Abbas Atilay, a photo correspondent for RFE/RL’s Azeri Service and Torokul Doorov, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, have won three photography awards from Transition Online (TOL) for depictions of “Everyday Life” and “Arts and Culture." Atilay's submission also won TOL's overall photography award for 2011. Transitions Online is a nonprofit journalism foundation devoted to improving news coverage of the former Soviet Union.

Atilay's photo of a villager holding a goat in the remote village of Khinalug, in northern Azerbaijan, was awarded the competition's "Everyday Life" prize. Around 2,000 residents from a distinct ethnic group, speaking their own language, live in Khinalug. When Atilay took his photo in April 2011, villagers had just returned to their homes in the mountains after wintering in the lowlands.

Radio Azattyk's Doorov's photograph of older women giving their blessing at a circumcision party in the remote village of Kok-Tash in Kyrgyzstan's Batken region won first place in the competion's "Arts and Culture" category.

Based in Baku, Atilay has in the past been subject to abuse by the Azeri authorities for filming and photographing protests in Baku. Abbas has traveled to some of the most remote places in the Caucasus, visited Iran’s bazaars, and documented modern life in Azerbaijan's rural villages. For more of Abbas’s photo galleries, visit RFE/RL's Facebook weekly gallery, and view Abbas' sound slide shows on Radio Azadliq’s website.

Also check out Radio Azattyk to see Doorov’s photo galleries, which show off his winning photo of a Kyrgyz circumcision celebration ceremony and other depictions of Kyrgyz culture.

-- Deana Kjuka