Tragic photos taken during the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh have taken center stage across a number of categories of the 2021 World Press Photo Contest.

Chosen from among more than 4,300 photographers submitted from 130 countries, the projects were announced on March 10 by an independent jury of experts. The prize celebrates the best visual journalism of 2020.

In the Contemporary Issues category, Armenian photographer Vaghinak Ghazaryan’s "Resting Soldier", a photograph of a soldier sleeping in a trench, was shortlisted.

© Vaghinak Ghazaryan

Russian photographer Valery Melnikov, meanwhile, has received a nomination for "Leaving Home in Nagorno-Karabakh", which centers on families leaving their homes in districts that were handed over to Azerbaijan following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Melnikov’s photos on the war scooped a nomination for the Photo Story of the Year and General News categories․

The captivating portrait of an Armenian girl with Resignation Syndrome by Polish photographer Tomek Kaczor won the the World Press Photo award in the Portrait category in 2020.