Turkish photographer Burhan Ozbilici claimed the main prize of the 2017 World Press Photo contest. The man working for the Associated Press made history by having captured the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador in Turkey.
The photographer risked his life while taking images of the armed attacker, when Mevlut Altintas shot dead the Russian official during the photo exhibition called ‘Russia as seen by Turks’; it took place in Ankara in December 2016.
According to Ozbilici, he had nothing but professional motives behind this act. ‘Even if he wounded or killed me, I am still a reporter. I’ve got to do my job. I couldn’t flee the scene without photos, because later I would have no reasonable answer to the question why I failed to shoot the scene,’ he said.
Ozbilici added it was almost accidentally that he had visited the exhibition; he just came by, thinking of a ‘fresh picture for a story about Russian-Turkish relations’.
Source: AP
