Linhof Young Photographer photo contest winners

LINHOF YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER AWARD 08/09

The judging has taken place.
On April 24, 2009 the jury met in in the headquarters of Linhof Präzisions-Systemtechnik / Munich to select the winners. 468 participants from 39 countries had sent more than 3.500 images.
The ratio of female to male photographers was almost exactly 1 : 2.
The Linhof company and the jury were surprised by the large number of international participants in the competition despite the tough restrictions relating to age (under 35 years old) and the theme.
The theme was "HUMAN CITYSCAPES" and the photographic entries should comprise the urban environment "City" showing the contrasts or unity of people and architecture. Every participant was asked to submit a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 8 entries all dealing with the theme.
The jury had a difficult job. Quite often excellent images were submitted but missed the conceptional idea. Some photographers submitted individual images but did not follow the concept for their whole series whereas the judging always referred to the total entry.
The entries from 39 countries also revealed distinct preferences for content and aesthetics. Most of the entries originated from Germany. These 169 participants often referred to the theme fairly strictly combined with conceptional architectural photography - at a high quality standard.
Entries from China (81) can be described as more formal experimental. Many-sided but also individually were the works of the English (31) and American (21) participants.
The jury has evaluated the image series in relation to their reflecting the changing impression of human beings in relation to their environment.
Members of the jury were:
Thomas Weski (Associate Director, Haus der Kunst Munich, Curator of photography), Professor Peter Bialobrzeski (High School for Arts/Bremen, Photographer), Brigitte Nusser (Curator of photographs), Anna Wondrak (Historian for Arts), Barbara Wolff (Photographer). All three living in Munich.
First prize, Linhof Camera equipment valued at 10.000 Euro goes to 28 year old Russian photographer Alexander Gronsky living in Talin/Estonia. Hies series "The Edges" is about exploring the boundaries of Moscow. In almost surrealistic scenes he shows people and animals disintegrated from the city and put in the abstract plane of the snow.
Second prize, Linhof Camera equipment valued at 3,000 Euro goes to the team of Philipp Diettrich and Matthias Keller (High School for Design/Karlsruhe and High School for Arts/Bremen) for their work "Kolonia Megawatt" dealing with the Polish border city Bogatynia. The series shows the transformation of the town and the people. Destruction, re-building and the strongly dominant power plant create a peculiar cosmos visible in the series of images.
Third prize, Linhof Camera accessories valued at 1,000 Euro goes to Harlan Erskine, New York (School of Visual Arts/New York). His series "Imaginary Wars" show games of his childhood in New York with imaginary foes lurking around the corners. Children play games in which they imagine themselves in adult roles that they may not fully grasp. In the images the photographer stretches his memories into an apocalyptic world.
Linhof Präzisions Systemtechnik, being the organizer of this competition, says many thanks again to all participants. The company plans to issue a contest bi-annually with new topics thus establishing this competition as an important international photographer award.

Linhof Award:
468 participants from 39 countries
Germany 169
China 81
United Kingdom 30
USA 21
France 18
Austria 18
Italy 17
Netherlands 13
Taiwan 13
Israel 9
Russia 9
Switzerland 8
Belgium 7
Latvia 5
Spain 5
Hungary 5
Denmark 4
Canada 3
Poland 3
Portugal 3
Romania 3
India 2
Japan 2
Mexico 2
Singapore 2
Ukraine 2
Belarus 2
Brazil 1
Estonia 1
Finland 1
Georgia 1
Greece 1
Indonesia 1
Ireland 1
Lithuania 1
Sweden 1
Slovenia 1
Czech Republic 1
Venezuela 1

The winning images will be posted soon on Linhof’s web site. For further information see: www.linhof.de

Note : Hochschule fur Gastaltung/ Kunshochschule is not any kind of a High school
but a name that would be translateted to Academy of Arts and or Design.
This is where the Germans teach art and design on university level.

This is very cool. My sister's ex was from Germany, and his sister actually went to an arts academy. I don't know if she ever did anything more than some family photos, but it was cool to hear about. Do everyone know if this contest is an annual thing?

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Originally Posted by TheBigBlackInTheSky

This is very cool. My sister's ex was from Germany, and his sister actually went to an arts academy. I don't know if she ever did anything more than some family photos, but it was cool to hear about. Do everyone know if this contest is an annual thing?

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So far, no.