1st PLACE
Vassilis Pantelidis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Fine Arts, GreeceProject Name: Monologues, 2021.
Description: The ongoing photography project titled “Monologues” consists of a series of conceptual self - portraits. It is the result of editing heterogeneous episodes tracing the human condition; the result of fermenting the tragic and comic parts of life. The individual scenes adopt a theatrical approach where abstraction, paradox, absurd and repetition weave a claustrophobic thread around the human subject, without offering any sort of redemption or solution. The setting indicates an unknown place; the place of existential quest and metaphysical human agony levitating between the truth and the fiction of existence, the contingency and the uncertainty of life while embellished with sarcasm and irony. Monologues of a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy.
2nd PLACE
Fatemeh Abedini
University of Islamic Denominations, Teheran IranProject Name: Line Breaker Girls, 2021.
Description: An athlete, a coach, a wife, a mother and a leader of women's sports club in a Charoymaq city. These roles do not represent her, but she can only be herself with all these roles. “Parisa Mohammadpour” Ms. Mohammadpour, a 28-year-old young activist. Her roles are so intertwined with her identity that there are actually no boundaries between them. She is just like the rest of the ordinary girls in her city, but what makes her special is this breaking of the boundaries. Such activities are not common for the women in this city - they are bound; but at the same time she knelt and stood on her feet - and she stood tall. Now she is one of the first female coaches and vice chairman of their city's Taekwondo Federation. The family and especially Ms. Mohammadpour’s husband, together with their compassionate company, have always supported her courage and power and have walked shoulder to shoulder with her. Her husband is a farmer and he knows very well how hard it is for a seed planted in the ground to grow and to sprout. As the coronavirus descended on us, lifestyles changed dramatically. Consecutive vacation and housekeeping could not extinguish the beating pulse of sports in Ms. Mohammadpour’s life, so, along with performing her roles of a mother and a woman, she also exercises at home, in the garden, or even deep in the mountains; she becomes a mother and a coach. It has been a while since their club reopened and Ms. Mohammadpour, who was so worried about her daughters, regained her passion for climbing. Travelling this route all alone took her a lot of hard work, but she has become a bridge for the passionate girls of her city encouraging them to fly and showing them that ordinary people can break boundaries as well. And the world is waiting for the ordinary people to break boundaries.
3rd PLACE
Sara Kecman
Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad SerbiaProject Name: Bojana, 2021.
Description: Bojana and I met through Instagram, earlier this year. We followed each other for a while and I couldn’t help but notice her exceptional, long-standing commitment to taking self-portraits. She usually places herself in a natural scenery of her home village; in a forest or by the river. What stands out most about those portraits is definitely her inner need to get to know herself through photography. For some inexplicable reason, I had a strong desire to photograph her. I was attracted to her energy and to something that I have often lacked - a tireless and constant need to create and to express myself. Although we have had a very good communication, both online and in person, we really got to know each other through photography, in the most honest way possible. During the period of a few months, we met only a few times, but in that short period we managed to find a common language and create something that equally represents both of us. We did not make any plans in advance, we just indulged in the energy of the place and followed where it would lead us. This project, our friendship and our creative bond is hopefully only the beginning of something much larger. Until then, Bojana, thank you for everything.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasa
University of Hertfordshire, United KingdomProject Name: The Forbidden Love, 2021.
Description: In Bangladesh, having been abandoned by family and friends, transgender people are subject to extensive daily abuse. The existing and continuously growing transphobia and homophobia in society are obstacles in the trajectory of enlightenment for an individual. The featured individuals of the LGBTQ+ community share a wide variety of such life narratives. As a photo story, “The Forbidden Love” seeks to elevate and celebrate love, portraying their desire to live with and within love. The vividness in their expressions, their enchanting bonding with partners, and the simplistic honesty – all of these made these photographs possible, catalyzing the compartmentalization of the existing stereotypes. This project, perhaps, is a leap to explore the infinite and beautiful gradient of the representation of love; it is an attempt at redefining love beyond the gender identities and stigmas through the true reflection of their personas. The photographs and interviews in “The Forbidden Love” have been used as photographic tableaux.
Nicholas-DuPont
Parsons School of Design, New York, United States of AmericaProject Name: Unbound Spaces, 2020.
Description: In its current form, the natural landscape appears fixed in the state it inhabits. Although it transforms over time, we always physically experience the land in the present as it exists today. Rock formations are solid, bodies of water adhere to their boundaries and tidal patterns, and the sky is always above us, but the echoes of a place’s history are not always apparent on its surface. Unbound Spaces offers visual interpretations of how natural elements can be reimagined through their fluid evolutions in space and time. By layering physical images cut out from magazines with digital images of natural patterns and surfaces, the new compositions become obscured depictions that blur the lines between what is real and what is surreal. Throughout this series of work, landscapes are fragmented into multiple pieces and intertwined with photographs from various locations, breaking their boundaries of natural order. The images in Unbound Spaces also question the linear timeline of changing environments and what constrains them in their present states. Which elements of our physical surroundings are natural and which are fabricated? How are we bound to spaces as individuals and how do we bind them to ourselves? Rather than answering these questions, the collaged forms remain open-ended for the viewer to project their own perceived interpretations and conclusions.
Omar Perez
Universidad Veracruzana, MexicoProject Name: Versus, 2020.
Description: Photographs depicting the relation between the rider and the beast - the bull, who will fight for a minimum period of 8 seconds during which the rider will tame the jerks of the bull. These photos are taken just before the confrontation; the opponents do not know each other, but still it seems that somehow they do and that there is a bond between them that makes them face each other from the moment they touch the land of the corral, always ready to attack each other. This is the Mexican jaripeo (bull rider).
