Jury 2024

Maral Deghati is an international photo-editor. Producing photography and multimedia narratives in collaboration with photojournalists worldwide on issues concerning developing and conflict ¬stricken contexts across Asia, Africa and Europe. With a background in photojournalism, art history and psychology in a multicultural environment, her interests focus on the exploration of the human experience and its varied perspectives through photography and multidisciplinary action.
Beyond her role as a photo-editor for various international agencies, advocating visual literacy, curating exhibitions and educational projects are integral to Deghati’s work with photography. In 2014 she was the founding editor-in-chief for Me-Mo magazine, a new media interactive magazine of documentary photography. Deghati was a programmer for the WARM Festival in Sarajevo (2014-2018) and a curator of the exhibition co-produced by Bayeux Award For War Correspondents "Afghanistan, an endless war" (2019), as well as manager of education at World Press Photo and managing editor for News at Getty Images.

Bülent Kılıç is a journalist and photojournalist who was born in 1980. Kılıç, who graduated from Ege University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Journalism, has been working for more than 20 years since his student years. Kılıç, who worked for Evrensel and BirGün newspapers in the early days of his career, decided that photography was the area where he could express himself best. Kılıç, who witnessed the last days of the film industry, laid the foundations of photojournalism during the time he spent in the darkroom. He is just starting his career in the days of transition from film to digital. Emotion stands out as the most obvious element in Kılıç's photography. Among the many factors that make photography perfect, what could be stronger than a genuine emotion that can be given by a correct and well-rounded composition, just like all other types of crafts and arts or any hand craftsmanship done on time and in the right way? Kılıç is a photographer who seeks perfection in the photographs he takes, but has never made this his goal. For Kılıç, perfection or happiness is not a goal, but the entire journey in which we mature. In his early years, when he saw Metin Göktepe, a journalist who was murdered while he was doing his job and it was on the news, Kılıç decided that this was the job he wanted to do. He went on to spend 16 years at Agence France Presse, which he started right after his school years, and has continued his career as a freelance photojournalist since May 2024. Kılıç, who has witnessed many crises and changes especially in the last 12 years of his career, was involved in the Syrian war from the very beginning and subsequently served in Mosul, Ukraine, Afghanistan and many similar regions. Kılıç, who has many prestigious journalism and photography awards in the world, has been awarded twice in the World Press Photo competition and has been on the Pulitzer candidate list twice. Kılıç, who has won many similar awards, lives in Istanbul and continues to express his feelings and thoughts by producing photographs.

Magdalena Herrera - Art Director and Photo Editor. Born in Havana to a family of artists, Magdalena Herrera left Cuba as a child to settle in Paris, where she studied fine art and art history at the Sorbonne before starting her career as a graphic designer and art director. She has worked in books, print and magazines, spending ten years as Art Director and head of the photo department at National Geographic France before joining Geo France as Director of Photography.

Parallel to her journalistic work, Magdalena Herrera runs workshops and seminars around the world organized by the World Press Photo Foundation, including the Joop Swart Masterclass and Fokal, the Soros foundation, in Haiti. She has taught photojournalism at the Ecole Supérieure de Sciences Po, Paris.

She is regularly solicited as a Jury Member at international photography competitions and
was the chair of the 2018 World Press Photo contest.

Prof. Mgr. Jindřich Štreit Dr.h.c. is a Czech photographer, university teacher, curator and organizer of cultural projects. His works primarily document the life of inhabitants of Czech villages. His is the author of over 1500 photography exhibitions, over 56 published works, his photographs are represented in the most important collections and has been the protagonist of several movies. He currently teaches at the Institute of creative photography in the city of Opava.

Doc. Mgr. art. Jana Hojstričová, ArtD. is a photographer and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, where she leads the "Studio of Photography, Reality, Construction". In her photographic work she deals with the topics such as the status of women, contemporary family and society, and currently also with the issues of museum culture. In addition to her photographic work, she also specializes in glass, ceramics and design photography. She also researches photography and photographic technologies of the 19th century. In recent years, she has collaborated with Pal Macha, a glass artist. She has prepared a number of exhibitions for domestic and international audiences. She currently lives and works in Bratislava.

Maral Deghati is an international photo-editor. Producing photography and multimedia narratives in collaboration with photojournalists worldwide on issues concerning developing and conflict ¬stricken contexts across Asia, Africa and Europe. With a background in photojournalism, art history and psychology in a multicultural environment, her interests focus on the exploration of the human experience and its varied perspectives through photography and multidisciplinary action.
Beyond her role as a photo-editor for various international agencies, advocating visual literacy, curating exhibitions and educational projects are integral to Deghati’s work with photography. In 2014 she was the founding editor-in-chief for Me-Mo magazine, a new media interactive magazine of documentary photography. Deghati was a programmer for the WARM Festival in Sarajevo (2014-2018) and a curator of the exhibition co-produced by Bayeux Award For War Correspondents "Afghanistan, an endless war" (2019), as well as manager of education at World Press Photo and managing editor for News at Getty Images.

Filmmaker, visual artist and photographer Tomáš Rafa (1979) studied at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Since 2009 he has been documenting the growing nationalism and far-right groups in the Visegrad Group area. Tomáš Rafa's work is known not only in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, but also in Sweden and the USA. In Slovakia, he received the Oskar Čepan Award in 2011, and since then he has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in many countries. In 2017 he presented his work at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA PS1) in New York. Focusing on current affairs and addressing social and political issues, his work is related to contemporary art's inclination towards ethical issues.

Ivo Miko. Born in Sabinov. He graduated from the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, majoring in camera and photography. In 2013, he completed his doctoral studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in this field.

Filmography
During his studies, he collaborated with Roman Fabian on the films Cudzinec /The Foreigner/ (2008) and Veľké pranie /The Big Wash/ (2007). Lukáš Hanulak's graduation film Otec /The Father/ (2009) won the Camera Award at the Áčko festival and the film also won the main prize for Best Film at the 39th Film Festival Sehsuchte in Potsdam in Germany. Roman Fabian's Ja som baník, kto je viac /I am a miner, who is better/ (2012) won several awards at the Áčko festival. This film was also awarded in the student film section of the Kamera 2013 competition.
He collaborated with Peter Begányi on the projects Ja som bulvár /I am a Tab/ (2008), Osemašesťdesiatnik /Nineteen Sixty-eight/ (2009) and a feature documentary Erotic Nation (2009).
He collaborated with Miro Remo on the feature-length documentary Comeback (2014), Pohoda (2011), Cooltúra /Coolture/ (2016) and Vrbovský veter (2014). Jaro Vojtek's film Tretí koniec palice /The Third End of the Stick/ (2023) won the Best Film Award in the Visegrad Region category at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. This film also received an honorable mention for cinematography at the SEE festival in Los Angales.
During and after his studies, he worked on several TV projects - Prvé oddelenie /First Department/ (2009), Aféry /Affairs/ (2010), Najväčšie kriminálne prípady /The Greatest Criminal Cases/, Najväčšie tragédie /The Greatest Tragedies/, ŠTB: prísne tajné! /The ŠtB: Top Secret! (2022), and Kolonáda /Colonnade/.
Road movie Stanko (2016) by Rasťa Boroš was his feature film debut. He currently works as a freelance cinematographer and continues to work in live-action production. In collaboration with director and screenwriter Juraj Šláuk, they created the film Punk je hned! /Punk Never Ends!/ (2019), and with director Laco Kaboš they made the feature-length documentary Kapela /Band/ (2018).
He does not shy away from female directors either. He has collaborated several times and is currently collaborating with Vladislava Plančíková - To ta monarchia /That Monarchy/ (2022), Anna Gruskova, Bibiana Beňová, and Barbora Berezňáková - Skutok sa stal /Never happened/ (2019). With Janka Durajová and Lenka Kušnieriková he made the film Pozor, padá SNG! /Hanging without Walls/ (2023).