Nikon Inc. is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018-2019 international Nikon Photo Contest, one of the largest and most distinguished photo contests in the world. Started in 1969 as an opportunity for photographers to share their unique visions and enrich photographic culture, the Nikon Photo Contest is celebrating its 50th anniversary of recognizing talented creatives worldwide.
The 2018-2019 Nikon Photo Contest received an all-time high number of submissions, with 97,369 entries by approximately 33,000 people from 170 countries and regions around the world. Entries to this year’s contest were accepted in three categories, including: Open, a single photo or photo story representing the theme of “Change”; Next Generation, a single photo or photo story expressing the idea of “Identity” open to photographers aged 25 or younger; and Short Film, a video submission that tells the story of “Hope.”
Open Award Gold Prize: “Change”
– Single: “Alma and Alzheimer’s” — Jason Parnell-Brookes (United Kingdom)
– Story: “hope” — Thaib Chaidar (Indonesia)
Next Generation Gold Prize: “Identity”
– Single: “Ayimpoka” — Sara De Antonio Feu (Spain)
– Story: “Fang hua / Moments in Our Youthful Days” — Tu Jinghan (China)
Short Film Gold Prize: “Hope”
– “Exulansis” — Sara Crochet (USA)
The winners were selected by an international panel of judges, all of whom are respected members of the arts and imaging communities, with world-renowned art director Neville Brody serving as Lead Judge. Nikon USA Ambassadors, Keith Ladzinski and Carol Guzy, also joined the panel to participate in this 50-year tradition of discovering and celebrating rising talent.
“I was honored to participate as a judge in this year’s Nikon Photo Contest and help Nikon to uncover talented storytellers from around the world.” said Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist and Nikon Ambassador Carol Guzy, “I was impressed by how each of the winning participants interpreted the ideas of hope, change and identity in their submissions, unleashing the power of visual expression to give these common themes new meaning.”
Recipients of the gold, silver, and bronze awards from each category were selected based on a variety of aspects, including their suitability to the category’s theme, the strength of the message, and level of creativity.
The Grand Prize winner (selected from among Gold Prize winners in each category) will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held in Tokyo on August 23, 2019. Additionally, one submission will receive the Participants’ Choice Prize, while another will receive the Nikon Photo Contest 50th Anniversary Prize, a new prize implemented this year.
“This competition asks a lot of questions. One of the main questions it asks is ‘what is the role of photography in the future?’” Neville Brody explained, “Photography changes in our lives. It’s in all of our phones. It’s everywhere we look. It’s in publishing. Our world has seen more in images than words these days. It’s an international language and it changes and influences the way we are as a people and as a society. So, I think photography can only become more important and more significant. I think the variety in the works that have made it through to the awards, the narratives, the connections, and the surprises I think will make a really interesting debate about the world we live in and how we view it.”
Please refer to the Nikon Photo Contest 2018-2019 website for more information on the winning entries and images from the final round of judging: https://www.nikon-photocontest.com/en/
Source: Nikon Photo Contest