The Award Ceremony of the 6th Instagram Competition Was Held

Izmir Commodity Exchange is one of the few institutions in Türkiye that has seen the country's political and economic life for 130 years. The award ceremony and exhibition of the sixth Instagram Photography Competition, which was held by Izmir Commodity Exchange (ICE) with the theme of "Sustainability in Agriculture" this year, was held at the ICE Palace.

Ercan Korkmaz, Deputy Chairperson of the Executive Board of Izmir Commodity Exchange, who made the opening speech of the ceremony, noted that there was very high participation in the competition with photographs suitable for the theme of sustainability in agriculture, and he emphasized that social media has a decisive influence in every field from foreign policy to politics, from economy to sports.

"We took a leading role in social media"

Pointing out that social media has a key role also in the influence and reputation of organizations or brands, Korkmaz said, "As Izmir Commodity Exchange, we have recognized this quite early and taken a leading role in this field and promoted our Exchange, our activities, and agriculture in many social media channels. Moreover, our Instagram competition is the first among chambers and exchanges and has been continuing to attract significant attention every year. We are able to enable diverse segments to devote their attention to and focus on agricultural output as a result of this competition. Thanks to their photographs, we are able to reach more people, and we make them recognize the importance and value of agriculture. Another advantage of Instagram is its popularity in our country. According to the surveys, Instagram is most actively used in Türkiye among all countries in the world. This shows that we have chosen the right medium for the competition we have started to draw attention to agriculture. The interest in our competition also proves this."

Ercan Korkmaz, Deputy Chairperson of the Executive Board of ICE, stated that 178 photographs had competed in the first competition on the historical commodity exchange building and said, "This number has grown exponentially every year, and a total of 1397 photographs competed in the sixth year including the works uploaded by many competitors from different provinces in the national arena. Among the submitted works, 761 were found to comply with the specifications were presented to the jury for evaluation. The winners of the competition were determined as a result of the qualifying meetings held in two stages. I congratulate wholeheartedly both the participants and the winners of the competition. I wish every moment to be as beautiful and enjoyable as the Instagram photographs."

At the end of the ceremony, the awards of the winners were given to the participants by the Members of the Executive Board of ICE and the jury members of the 6th Instagram Photography Competition.

A total prize of 45,000 TL were given to winners

In the competition organized in three categories as 'Photograph on the Sustainability in Agricultural Production', 'Photograph on the Sustainability in Agricultural Trade', 'Photograph on the Reflection of Climate Change on Agriculture', the first prize was 5,000 TL, the second prize was 3,000 TL, the third prize was 2,000 TL, and the honorable mention was 1,000 TL. In addition to works that were rewarded in the competition, the works entitled to be exhibited were awarded 350 TL as an exhibition participation award.

At the ceremony, plaques of appreciation were given to Ilhan Zincircioğlu, Sonnur Kırmızıoğlu, Erol Avni Bozkurt, the Members of the Executive Board of Izmir Commodity Exchange, Assoc. Prof. Gökhan Birinci, Faculty Member at 9 Eylul University Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Photography, Dr. Ahmet İmançer, Faculty Member at Ege University Faculty of Communication, Prof. Dr. Özlem Aşman Alikılıç, Faculty Member at Yaşar University Faculty of Communication, Turan Gültekin, Member of Izmir Journalists' Association, and Şükrü Akın, the Aegean Region Representative of the Turkish Photojournalists Association, as the members of the jury, who evaluated the works participating in the competition, for their contribution to the competition.

At the end of the ceremony, the guests had the opportunity to examine the works that were rewarded in the exhibition and cocktail held at the ICE's foyer area.

Commenting on the contribution of the competition, Işınsu Kestelli, Chairperson of the Executive Board of Izmir Commodity Exchange, said, "In our Instagram competition, which has become traditional for our Exchange, this year, we aimed the protection of the environment, economic growth, and social development, and we wanted to highlight the concept of 'Sustainability in Agriculture', which is one of the main pillars of our strategy 'Transforming the wealth of agriculture', which includes a transformation that will meet the needs of today and future generations and increase the welfare of the society. Therefore, we aimed to draw attention to the concepts of sustainability in agricultural production and trade, and to climate change, which is one of the most important threats to sustainability in agriculture. We are very happy that our competition attracted great interest and participation this year, as in previous years."

Kestelli stated that the concept of sustainability, which has been also emphasized by the European Green Deal, aimed to ensure the development and welfare of humanity by preserving the continuity of production and diversity and the opportunities of future generations to reach resources. She also stated, "Therefore, in our traditional photography competition, which we organized as part of our 130th anniversary, with the main theme of 'Sustainability in Agriculture', we wanted to transform this wealth into living frames through photography. Beautiful photographs were submitted to the competition, which has now become traditional and been organized under special categories determined within the framework of our competition theme. We were pleased with the large number of participants in this path that we set out to raise awareness on the subject. In the coming years, we aim to continue this colorful competition, which attracts attention with its different products and categories and where Instagram users of all ages can participate."

According to the results of the evaluation of the jury, the following works were rewarded in the competition categories:

Category of Sustainability in Agricultural Production:

1- Ali Mermertaş / @alimermertas

2- Murat Bakmaz / @bakmaz_murat

3- A. Fatih Sönmez / @afatihsonmez

4- Emrah Taşkıran (Honorable Mention) / @emrah_taskiran35

5- Burak Demir (Honorable Mention) / @burakdemirburak

Category of Sustainability in Agricultural Trade:

1- Meral Yeşilçiçek / @meral_ysl

2- Arzu İbranoğlu /@ibranarzu

3- Hüseyin Kayıkçı / @huseyinkayikchi

4-Aygül Öztürk (Honorable Mention) / @ aygul_ozturk_