The award will be an all-expense-paid trip to attend the opening ceremony of the festival’s exhibition in Tokyo.

“Turbulence” is the theme of the competition, which was organized from December 4 to 13. 

Shakeri took part in the competition with the photo series “An Elegy for the Death of Hamun”.

Lake Hamun located in southeast Iran has almost completely dried up due to years of drought and neglect, climate change, and desertification, and this is causing serious problems in the region.

The lake is primarily fed by the Helmand River, which has its source in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan.

Shakeri has begun his career in documentary photography since 2010. Since then, he has been working as a freelance photographer on private projects in Iran, Turkey, South Korea, Malaysia, France, Denmark, and Germany.

One of his major concerns is the psychological investigation of human relationships in the contemporary world. By capturing restlessness, perplexity, and social struggle in the modern capitalist world, he records the optical unconsciousness of the society and provides a universal narrative form with a personal insight.

He has been involved in many national and international festivals and received many awards, among them are the Ian Parry Scholarship in 2015, the Lucas Dolega Award in 2016 and the POYi’s World Understanding Award in 2017, and the Lens Culture’s Emerging Talents Award in 2018 and Getty Images Reportage Grant in 2019.