A Turkish photographer was given an award at the Visa Pour l'Image, the world's leading annual photojournalism festival, in southwestern France on Saturday.

Agence France-Presse photographer Bulent Kilic, 35, became the first Turk to be given the prestigious Visa d’Or award for taking dramatic images of Syrian refugees on the Turkish border.

Kilic overtook competition from Jerome Delay from Associated Press, Daniel Berehulak from New York Times and Goran Tomasevic of Reuters.

"I am proud of winning such a prestigious award as Visa Pour l'Image is the world's biggest photojournalism festival," Kilic told Anadolu Agency after the ceremony.

"Our main job is to show human crises, tragedies, oppressions and massacres across the world, so I will continue doing my job," he added.

Kilic, who started his career in 2003, was also given the World Press Photo Award in the Spot News in February 2015 and was named best wire photographer of the year by TIME and the Guardian in 2014.