Last night, in a gallery just off Brick Lane, the finalists for the IdeasTap Photographic Award were announced. IdeasTap, Magnum Photos and a whole host of members were present to admire 12 shortlisted collections of amazing photography from the IdeasTap community, but there could only be six finalists on the night…
Chaired by IdeasTap founder Peter De Haan, the judging panel included Magnum Photographer Peter Marlow, Sunday Telegraph photography critic Lucy Davis, London University of the Arts Photography Lecturer Adrian Mott, Director, inSitu Art Consultants Ltd Maggie O’Regan and award-winning freelance photographer (and IdeasTap member) Ambra Vernuccio.
The award was split into two different age groups, 16-22 and 22-30, and separated into conceptual, photojournalism and environmental categories. All in all, we had almost 350 applicants.
Each of the 12 shortlisted applicants received a mentoring session from a Magnum photographer and had their work made into a book by Blurb publishers. Of the 12, the six category winners will get £1,500 towards another photography project.
Two overall winners from each age group (to be announced next spring) will be the recipients of a £5,000 cash prize and internships at Magnum Photos – one with the Magnum in Motion team in New York (one week); the other a six-week paid internship with Magnum in London.
Here are the results...
Age category: 16-22
Conceptual
Winner: Luisa Whitton
Luisa’s ”double portraits” of the same person shot twice and then exposed again makes for photography that requires a double take, before demanding your attention. See her portfolio here.
Runner up: Will Reed
Photojournalism
Winner: Masha Gruzdeva
By showing us the aged, dated and strangely sinister exteriors of the Soviet Star City, Masha comments on the history of the Cold War space race. See her portfolio here.
Runner up: Rajan Zaveri
Environmental
Winner: Alex Moore
With his portraits of grimy men, women and children, furiously chomping on cheap food, Alex has evoked something all too familiar and all too terrifying. See his portfolio here.
Runner up: Charlie Hey
Age Category: 23-30
Conceptual
Winner: William Arnold
Using a pinhole camera that allowed the tiniest amount of light to shine straight onto photographic paper, William Arnold has bypassed the need for celluloid all together. The resulting impressions of empty bedrooms are ghostly and luminous. See his portfolio here.
Runner up:
Charley Murrell
Photojournalism
Winner: Roman Sakovich
Roman’s portraits of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy – the largest underground scientific laboratory in the world – look like the remnants of a sci-fi film, all lurid, glossy colours trapped in hidden tunnels. See his portfolio here.
Runner up: Michael Carroll
Environmental
Winner: Maria Kjartans
Maria’s snowcaps, tundra and frozen oceans are a strangely poetic reflection on what it is to live in some of our most inhospitable and isolated environments. See her portfolio here.
Runner up: Jon Cardwell
If you want to see all the finalists’ works, visit 4 Wilkes Street, London E1. The exhibition is open until Sunday 16 October at 6pm.
Stay tuned to IdeasTap briefs for more photographic opportunities. See here for more information on Magnum Photos.
Image Drive Thru-Child © Alex Moore