Click on the multimedia link below to view a selection of this year's Ian Parry Scholarship Award entries, including the winning photo shot by Ivor Prickett

Ian Parry was a photojournalist who died while on assignment for The Sunday Times during the Romanian revolution in 1989. He was 24 years old.

The Ian Parry Scholarship was created by Aidan Sullivan, the then picture editor, and his friends and family in order to build something positive from Parry's tragic death.

Each year an international photographic competition is held for young photographers who are either attending a full-time photographic course or are under 24.

This year, entries were of an increasingly high standard, according to the judges, with most depicting global political issues.

“Almost all of the work entered was very political, but when I was a young photographer I was told to shut my mouth about the political side. Now, people are more aware, they are communicating more and these photographers are sending us work of real concern,” said award patron Don McCullin

The winning entry was from Ivor Prickett, a 23-year-old former photojournalism student of Newport University and now a freelance photographer living and working in London.

“I survive as a freelancer, which is amazing, but winning this award is going to help no end,” Prickett said.

His portfolio tells the story of some of the returning 200,000 Serbian Croats who were uprooted during the Croatian War of Independence between 1991 and 1995. Many years on, these people are trickling back to their homeland, despite the odds, in order to reclaim and rebuild their lives.

“His distinctive beautiful images stood out in a year when the quality of entries was higher than ever before," said Tom Stoddart, one of the judges.

“The judging offered a day of contrasting and experimental approaches, which exhibited a refreshingly mature degree of empathy with the chosen subjects. I feel that this is a quality too often overlooked or sacrificed by the mainstream media in its effort to simplify and facilitate the rapid digestion of information. We are in an age where this same speed denies us the luxury and necessity of thought and reflection. I believe this attitude and depth of thought was rewarded in the selection of works. The quality of the submissions should give us all reason for optimism,” said another judge, Philip Blenkinsop.

The winning entry is automatically accepted by World Press Photo into its final list of nominees for the Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam and is seen as a major platform for young photojournalists around the world.

The winning entries and a further selection made by the judges will be shown at the The Ian Parry Scholarship print exhibition, which runs from August 3 to 11 at the Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle St, London W1.

For more details of the exhibition visit www.ianparry.org

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