Gallery: Estonian Press Photo of the Year awards announced in Tallinn

On Thursday, an exhibition of the best Estonian press photos from 2024 opened at Viru Keskus in Tallinn. The winners of the annual awards for photo of the year were also announced.
A total of 726 entries were received, with photos were nominated in four different categories: news, nature, portrait and sport.
The Press Photo of the Year 2024 award was won by Erik Prozes from Postimees with his photo series "A view we no longer have." The same series also won Prozes the award for the best nature photo.

The sea view from Tallinn's highly-valued Pirita area. Over a 14-month period (July 2023 to September 2024), I documented how, despite the opposition of local residents, luxury apartment blocks are being built between the promenade and Pirita tee, obscuring the expansive view of the sea.
Until January 2024, I was able to take photos from exactly the same spot in the green area where I took the first photo, but soon boundary fences were erected around the future construction site. Excavators and cranes arrived. I stepped back a few dozen meters, trying to maintain as similar a shot as possible. Within a year, the construction zone had been extended further and I retreated with my camera. As time went on, the further away I had to be to take pictures and the uglier the view became. By September 2024, the walls had risen to 2-3 stories and the view of the sea disappeared.
"There are always a limited number of of places on the front," says developer Liven AS, in its advertisements for sea-view apartments there, with the larger ones fetching prices of over €1 million.

The winner of the 2024 News Photo of the Year was Delfi Media photographer Kiur Kaasik's work "A Speck of Hope in a Sea of Black,", in which a Georgian woman stands in front of hundreds of police officers in the center of Tbilisi, holding the flags of the European Union and Georgia. The people want Europe, but the country's oligarchic leaders want Russia.

The award for Sports Photo of the Year went to Õhtuleht's Maria Kilk for the series "Rakvere's most anticipated sporting event."
Rakvere Underground Fight Night is one of the most interesting sporting events in Lääne-Viru County. Now in its third year, the event attracts a packed audience. The competition is tense and adrenaline-filled.

Andras Kralla from Äripäev won the best portrait photo award with his photo "Time lost to the family."
Siiri Lahe, who drove for Estonian Cell for twelve years, did not have her last contract with her employer renewed because she decided she wanted to devote the time she used to spend driving 60,000 km a year to her family instead.
An exhibition of the Estonian Press Photos of the year opened on Thursday at Viru Keskus in Tallinn. From the beginning of March, the best press photos from 2024 will be on display in Tartu, Narva, Pärnu, Rakvere, Jõhvi and elsewhere in Estonia.
The book "Estonian Press Photo 2025" was also launched on Thursday, and an online book published too.
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Editor: Merili Nae, Michael Cole