Over 800 portfolios were submitted after the announcement of the competition. The jury consisted of world famous photojournalists, David Hurn and Alex Webb; London College of Communications lecturer, Max Houghton; and the British Journal of Photography's editor, Oliver Laurent; who had a tough task to narrow the list down to 30 names. As the organizers emphasized, the submitted sets of images were evaluated according to multiple criteria including sensitivity to the surrounding world, narrative skills, performance in terms of the topic, and technical quality of the images.
Among the 30 appreciated by Magnum Photo is Adrian Wykrota, a 26-year-old self-taught photographer. Born in Ostrowiec, Wykrota is co-founder of Retrofokus – a commercial photography company - and a member of the largest Polish photographers agency, Reporter.
Documentary photography and photojournalism - is a mirror of human life. - the photographer claims, and he documents social phenomena and changes in his images. One of the sets that the young artist submitted to the contest is a collection of photos that show a contemporary Polish wedding, which reveals a mix of folk traditions with modern, "Western" life.
"Wedding", photo. Adrian Wykrota, courtesy of artist
He also documents extraordinary events, such as a protest against the planned changes in the functioning and financing of the famous Gallery of Modern Art, Arsenał, in Poznań (a city in the west of Poland), or the Polish senior boxing Another interest of his is global photography: he runs a blog which describes the classics of photojournalism and shows current events through the prism of photos by various authors. His works are also available to see on his website.
Karolina Jonderko, another Polish photographer, was selected by Max Houghton and Harry Hardy for the short-list of 60 candidates.
All artists’ work listed in 30 under 30 will be displayed at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham during The Photography Show, held from 1st to 4th March, 2014.
Profiles of featured photographers can be found here.
Autorka: Anna Cymer, 11.02.2014, translated: Katarzyna Maksimiuk, 12.02.2014