“OPEN CALL” – Announcing the winners
We’re delighted to present the results of Life Framer edition II’s fourth theme. Pictures are worth a thousand words as the old saying goes… For this theme we asked you to show us those pictures in an open call – no explicit lead, and the freedom to investigate everything and capture anything. We asked you to show us life as you’ve seen it, experienced it, or imagined it. The photography competition was judged by Steve Bisson.
Steve Bisson is an Italian curator, editor, online publisher and gallery director. He is a photography guru who works for magazines, books, festivals, museums and galleries all over the world. He is the founder of Urbanautica, one of the most distinguished and most loved independent online photography platforms online. We caught up with Steve and asked him his thoughts on his judging position. His response was wise and honest: “I believe that a good photograph is not necessarily a knock out. It can also be something that gives you a hand. I have been invited to some juries before, however I do not particularly like to judge. I approached photography because I felt that I could learn something from others. I never stopped believing in this.” Thank you to Steve for joining us and playing the game!
You can discover the winning and shortlisted images below and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. Congratulation to all the talented photographers featured and thank you all for your support. Life is not an equation to be resolved, but a true reality to be experienced. Let’s face it now!
Winner: Sean Metelerkamp
“Both faces are hidden. In the middle there’s a blond spell. Hopeless and miraculous at the same time. To understand what kind of absurd and wonderful puzzle South Africa is you must have lived there. I had the chance to live for over a year in the North West in a quite poor area, not far from the border with Botswana, and to appreciate the contradictory extremes of that human landscape. This picture contains exactly what Sean Metelerkamp writes about himself “I retain the good, the bad, the weird and the wonderful within my blood and I see the hope, superstition, desire, regret, persistence and anger of this nation.” – Steve Bisson
“We are what we see. Francesco Merlini, like others photographers before him, does not get lost within the nuances of reality and goes straight to the point. This story is made of a snapshot that scratches the reality. As a bitter morsel for the stomach this photo can cause disgust, tension, rejection, discomfort. Yet there is something visceral that holds us there without reason. This is reality, whether we like it or not. Life is about whether to take it or leave it. Francesco Merlini takes it, and then slams you in the face with it.” – Steve Bisson
“Truth or falsity? A photograph is what we chose to show. The truth may be what we should believe. This image summarizes some essential features of the human community: violence, disbelief or lack of purpose and future, misunderstanding, hypocrisy. “How can we believe something that is known only thanks to photographs, which, by the way, are more effective when hidden than when openly shown, in this world already dominated by violence?” The question of the two artists echoes unanswered. Those who suffer the consequences of this silence, of this dramatic reticence are mostly helpless women, the mother earth, the sacred and the future generations. A staged photograph which also raises a question: do colours make a difference? ” – Steve Bisson
Winning photographers: Andrew Salama, Andrea Eichenberger, Andrea Carboni, Sinziana Velicescu, Kyle Zeto, Laura Pannack, David Allen Walker, Lucia Fainzilber, Phil Le Gal, Haley Morris Cafiero, Billy Macrae, Kate Riep, Guen Fiore, Agnieszka Chabros, Zervou Kerruish, Anthony Morris, Francesca Maria Fiorella.
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