Marcin Ryczek, A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow
Marcin Ryczek is among the finalists of the International Fine Art Photography Award, with his photograph A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow. Award winners will be announced in October 2013.
The finalists of the International Fine Art Photography Award have been announced on 22nd July. Marcin Ryczek, an emerging photographer from Kraków, is one of the nominees running for the award in the category Landscape/ Seascape/Nature.
The photograph combines conceptual style with street photography. Ryczek comments on the nominated image:
I made this shot off of Grunwaldzki Bridge in Kraków. At first, I saw an unusual contrast painted over nature - white snow and the black of the Vistula River, separated by a neat line of water. This scene reminded me of a yin-yang symbol and that was the initial concept for this image. Through the nature - on a black background appeared white swans and on the white background a black figure, I photographed the moment, admiring this extremely simple and reflective scene.
The photograph has already crossed the entire globe – following the author’s post with the image on his Facebook page Unknown Krakow (Nieznany Kraków), it has been published in newspapers and websites in England (The Guardian), Germany (Der Spiegel), Israel (Yedioth Ahronoth), Italy (La Repubblica), Denmark (Politiken) and Switzerland (20 Minuten, theTelegraph).
Marcin Ryczek lives and works in Kraków. He is mainly interested in conceptual photography, social portraiture and reportage. He is a keen traveller, which he easily manages to combine with photography and always looks for "the other angle" through which to portay his surroundings. A Man Feeding Swans in the Snow has already earned him one award – in 2013 he received third prize in the Environment category of Grand Press Photo, one of the prestigious competitions for professional journalist photography, organised by the magazine Press.
The International Fine Art Photography Award, co-organized by the de Groot Foundation, is a competition with a mission to celebrate fine-art photography and discover new talent. It aims to promote fresh faces of the medium from all over the world, provide them with an opportunity for a world-wide exposure via exhibitions and press. Submissions are welcome from emerging and mid-career artists from any country, who are over 18. This year sees the second edition of the competition.
The jury of the 2013 edition includes Anne Biroleau, curator of Photography for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Didier Brousse, curator and director of the Galerie Camera Obscura in Paris, Julie Grahame, publisher of aCurator Magazine, former director of Retna Photo Agency and representative of ClampArt Gallery in New York City, Alexandre Percy, director of the Acte2 Galerie in Paris, David Travis, author, curator, and former chair of the Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Hiroshi Watanabe, photographer and author.
Nominnees for the Grand Prix de Découverte in each of the seven categories run for the main award of $2,000. The second and third prize winners are rewarded with $1,000 and $500, respectively. All of the finalists’ images will also be exhibited at the Paris Salon de la Photo in November 2013, accepted into the notable collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and exhibited in the Grand Prix de la Découverte online gallery and social-media community. In addition, first-place winners will be published in aCurator Magazine and its blog.
Marcin Ryczek is competing for the first prize in the Landscape/Seascape/Nature category with the photographers Manuel Cosentino from Italy, Mehrdad Naraghi from Iran and Robin Robinson and Dennis Ramos from the U.S.
Names of the winners of the International Fine Art Photography Award will be announced in October 2013 and awarded at a ceremony in Paris. The Grand Prix Exhibit of all finalists' work will take place at the Salon de la Photo in Paris from the 7th to 11th of November 7–11.
Sources: www.internationalfineartphoto.org, www.marcinryczek.com, www.guardian.co.uk,
Ed. Anna Micińska 22.07.2013