Maestro Photo Contest '11
1st. Urbano Suarez, Spain
A country is like a mirror that reflects its people, their activities, parties, entertainment, customs and way of living everyday life. These are the hallmarks of identity, the cultural DNA that defines a nation's character. Without these elements a country is like a house without furniture, or uncultivated land. The images that make up this body of work, the result of a number of trips, capture the people of a small town rich in customs and rites, yet unabashedly open to modernity. Black & white adds a Mediterranean drama to the scenes and enhances the visual aesthetics, in which there is an emotional continuity between the foreground and the background. Selective blur and blurred objects, caused by movement in the action, are used deliberately to bring atmosphere to the story.
2nd. Krystian Kasperowicz, Poland
Krystian came fourth in the Maestro competition last year, so it is great that he made it to second this year. He has been interested in photography for most of his life, and uses the medium to demonstrate his identity and emotions - he says his pictures are all semi-biographical. After graduating from Warsaw Film School in 2009 Krystian set up his own photographic business, which he still runs. He says he has returned to the roots of photography by going back to film and shooting on medium and large-format cameras. 'After doing well last year I was impatient to get started on this year's Maestro competition. The theme My Country, was quite hard, so I'm really pleased to have met the challenge and reached second place,' he says. Krystian's series of six square images all contain strong symbols of his country, from Pope John Paul ll to vodka to a football scarf of the national team. People play only a small part in the pictures, which helps draw our attention to the symbolic objects that are the real subjects. That they were taken in Poland will be obvious to everyone who sees them.
3rd. Ingolfur Bjargmundsson, Iceland
Ingólfur Bjargmundsson is an amateur photographer from the city of Reykjavik in Iceland. Like many photographers, his children are his favourite subjects, and they often appear in his pictures. Born in 1971, Ingólfur has been interested in photography since he was a child. However, it was only a year ago that he began to take it more seriously, and he now has set up a Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ingolfurb). 'I'm an electrician by trade, but so lucky to have photography as my passion', says Ingólfur. 'I am also very lucky to live in this wonderful country. It is only small, but it has amazing wildlife and landscape, and I spend every spare moment I have trying to capture it with my camera.'
