Sri Lankan photojournalist wins gold medal at international exhibition

 

Tharaka Basnayaka

 

Sri Lankan photojournalist, Tharaka Basnayaka, who has participated in China Daily Gansu Trip, won a gold medal at the 2015 International Salon of Reporter Photography Ukraine, organized by the Ukrainian Center for Photographic Art and Ostrog Academy of Ukraine National University. The 26-year-old also won a diploma award in the sports section.

The awards ceremony for the exhibition will be held in Ostrog Academy, National University, on June 11. The exhibition will then tour several European countries. This year, 4,734 photographs were submitted from 44 countries, for the competition, which offers 71 awards.

The exhibition popularizes documentary photography, aims to strengthen its importance in today’s world and emphasizes the importance of preservation of authenticity and truthfulness.

For a full list of winners visit: http://press.ukrfoto.org/cache/pdf/press.ukrfoto.org-2015-en-results.pdf

Tharaka contributes to international photography agencies including Getty Images and Corbis Images.

His work has been recognized and featured in renowned international publications such as TIME, The Guardian and the New York Post.

Tharaka studied new media journalism at the University of Oklahoma in 2012 before touring Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Washington DC as an exchange student.

In 2011, the photojournalist won the award for the Best Student at the Sri Lanka College of Journalism. He gained an English language certification from the English department at the University of Cambridge in 2005. Tharaka covered short editorial photography assignments in Oklahoma, in the United States in 2012, as well as in Beijing and Lanzhou in China in 2014.

Currently he works as a staff photojournalist for Ceylon Newspapers in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Tharaka covers a wide range of editorial assignments and specializing in sports, news and features. His career highlights include coverage of the ICC World T20 World Cup 2012, CHOGM 2013 and Colombo Fashion Week.

Tharaka is taking graduate courses at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and he won first place in the UNICEF CRC Instagram Baton 2015.

 

The winning photographs:?