Both exhibitions – World Press Photo and Our Crimea – are prepared by the oldest Russian photo agency ITAR-TASS, reports Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The exhibition dedicated to the famous peninsula has embraced more than 50 works telling about life of Crimea from the beginning of the XX century till nowadays. Many photos are exhibited for the first time, some works are more than a hundred years old.

"One of the photos features the members of tsar family and the Emperor Nicholas II to whom the agency owes its birth" - said Sergey Mikhailov, the general director of ITAR- TASS, at the exhibition opening.

In the next room in the Center of Design there is another exhibition with larger scale - World Press Photo, ITAR-TASS is one of its organizers, too.

One may see some 200 works of the contest winners – 53 photographers from 25 countries. The final of World Press Photo contest was held in February in Amsterdam.

The jury has studied some hundred thousand works by over five thousand authors. Among the best world photographers the jury has noted Russians as well - Nikita Shokhov for a series of pictures from the national reserve Utrish, Danil Tkachenko for a series of photos of people who have rejected life in society, and Elena Chernyshova for her story of the city of Norilsk.

“World Press Photo is the most prestigious and respected contest in the world of photo journalism that defines the development trends of the profession for the years ahead. ITAR-TASS has always participated in it, our correspondents were named winners of World Press Photo 17 times. For the first time it has happened in 1956 when the award for sports photo was given to our photo journalist Sergey Preobrazhensky" – said Sergey Mikhailov.

This year ITAR-TASS news agency is celebrating its 110-th anniversary. Being the oldest Russian news agency ITAR-TASS has a unique photo archive counting more than a million photographs and negatives. In the last few years enormous work has been done to digitize and systemize the agency archives.

World Press Photo and Our Crimea exhibitions will continue to function till June 12, 2014.