TEHRAN -- A dramatic photograph of an unknown soldier’s funeral won the first prize at the Second Photo Festival of Heavenly Frames on Tuesday.
Gholamreza Qasemi took the photo during a heavy snowfall in the northwestern Iranian city of Marand last winter.
He received his award during a ceremony at the Iranian Artists Forum in Tehran.
The festival is organized annually by Tasvirnet, a major Iranian photo agency, to promote photos on martyrs and victims of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
The second prize went to Meisam Maleki Qazvini for a photograph, which displays a mother in tears laying on the grave of her soldier son as the father stands beside her.
A picture, which shows a mother cleaning the stele of one of her three soldier sons who were killed during the war, won the third prize.
The photo was taken by Samar Tabrizi, who dedicated her prize to the mother, who also attended the award presentation ceremony.
Filmmaker Abolfazl Jalili and photographers Mohammad Noruzi and Hadi Soleimani were the members of the jury.
Addressing the audience, Jalili said that unlike other Iranian festivals, the jury never received any official recognition.
“Everything went justly… So I have no regrets about being on the jury,” he added.
“We are not dependent upon any political party or wing,” said festival secretary Mohsen Mohammdi at the ceremony.
“The festival was organized as a labor of love,” he added.
The winners were selected from among over 2000 submissions.
The winning works and a selection of the submissions will be put on display in an exhibition at the Martyrs Museum in Tehran from May 10 to 20. The museum is located on Taleqani Street.
MMS/YAW
END