Entry Title: " Kashmir - Valley of tears"
Name: Andy Spyra, Germany
Category: Non-Professional, Feature Story


Entry Description: It's the longest unresolved conflict in the history of the United Nations: the fight over the valley of Kashmir. A total of over 1.000.000 Soldiers are stationed in the region what makes it to the most highly millitarized zone in the world. Especially on the indian side the troops have their bases in the citys what causes the uprising of the local population as they feel opressed by the Indian state. Since the beginning of the conflict in 1947 over 60.000 people have died and an end of the dispute over the valley of Kashmir is not in sight.

Andy Spyra, born 1984 in Hagen, Germany, is a freelance photographer currently based in Hannover, Germany. After graduating from school in 2006 and the following journeys to Central America and South East Asia where he came into first contact with photography, he worked one year as a freelance photographer for a local newspaper in his hometown Hagen before he started to study photography at the Fachhochschule Hannover where he has been studying since 2007.