MUMBAI: Four years and running. The Express Group brought the World press photo exhibition, an annual exhibition shown at about 85 venues in 40 countries all over the world, and for the second time they took an initiative to identify, promote and reward the Indian Press photographer and photojournalist, through Ramnath Goenka India Press photo awards.

This year's winner of the most prestigious award - The Ramnath Goenka Picture of the Year - went to 27-year-old Vipin Pawar of DNA newspaper. He confessed that press photographers were always looked down upon by their fellow journalists. Vipin started out clicking Page Three parties, eventually got a chance to do more constructive shoots, but always wanted to do sports photography.

The India Press winning photos and some selected entries were credited as 'Honourable Mention'.

The occasion was marked by the presence of Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, an avid photographer himself.

The Awards sought participation of photo journalists from all over India under 10 categories namely Spot news, General news, Daily news, People in the news, Arts and entertainment, Sports, Nature and enviornment, Contemporary Issues, Advertising photography and international photograhers covering India. The panel of judges included Devika Daulat Singh-director of photography at Photoink, Pablo Bartholomew-photojournalist/documentary photographer, Gamma-Liason Photo News Agency, New York, Prashant Panjiar - Time magazine.

Click here for the award winning photographs

Express Group CEO and editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta said that press photograhers, through their unique skill and effort, tell a story. Strong stories of what happen around us - our neighbourhood, city, state and in our country. They capture the essence of news through their eyes and their lenses.

The best encapsulation of News and Press photography can be seen from 16-30 December at Express Towers, Mumbai.