Kathmandu:

There was much excitement at award distribution ceremony for the Press Photo Contest 2007, at the Nepal Art Council, Babermahal on May 11. Organised by the National Forum of Photo Journalists, awards in four categories — Environment, Feature, Sports and News — and an overall Press Photo of the Year were given. Experienced photographers and a newspaper editor selected the award winning photos out of a total of 328 entries from 91 photojournalists.

Sagar Shrestha of Independent News Service pocketed Rs 50,000 after one of his photos was declared the Press Photo of the Year. The photo, captured at the height of Jana Andolan II, shows a frightened young boy caught in a baton charge of riot police.

The Himalayan Times photojournalists also shone at the competition scooping the first prizes in two categories — Udipt Singh Chettry in Sports, and Rajendra Manandhar in News.

“I want to click more and more of this kind of photos in the future,” a happy Manandhar said, while Chettry thought a tougher road lay ahead of him.

Eakal Silwal of Nepal Samacharpatra bagged first prize in Feature, while Sailendra Kharel of Kantipur won the first prize in Environment. The first prize was worth Rs 15,000, while the second and third were Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.

More than 100 short listed photos of the competition are on exhibition till May 15 along with the winning photos at the Nepal Art Council.

The competition was sponsored by Photo Concern in association with Canon and Jyotishree Pvt Ltd.