The theme of the contest entries this year was "Mountains of Memories." What were we looking for when reviewing the competition entries? A human, personal dimension. In previous years, the authors delighted us with spectacular frames of magnificent and familiar views. The exhibitions composed from these photos were visually very sophisticated. This year we wanted something more modest, more intimate. We were looking for personal experiences, private memories or universal shots that many of us can identify with. Why? Because we need to remember that we must not look at the world as a trophy to be won. After all, we are only part of this world, not its rulers. In today's civilized world, the mountains remain a place where we can still feel part of the real, non-virtual world. In the mountains we can still experience real emotions, sincere joy, great fear, exciting adventure, loss, defeat or tragedy.
Such was the human dimension of personal memories that we were looking for in the photos submitted this year. We unanimously chose the work of Piotr Lisowski, entitled "The human dimension of personal memories". With a friend As the winning work. In addition to the aforementioned dimension of meaning, the picture is very painterly. The photo is also very universal. The audience of the Avalanche Meetings also agreed with our decision, awarding the photo the Audience Award.
Photo submitted by Marcin Bawca entitled. A memory from Iceland Is downright fabulous. The painterly quality of this photo is stunning. We asked ourselves, is it really a photo? The author assures us that he does not interfere with the image and the photo is pure photography. We awarded second prize to Bawca's work.
Third prize was awarded to Agnieszka Wielinska for a vast mountain panorama brought from Georgia. In this endless landscape, a human being is a small piece of the big puzzle that is the world and our life in it.
We awarded the special prize of the Source Photo Club this year to Barbara Bryla for her photographic memories of the past, when she traveled to Nepal in the 1980s. We awarded our prize for preserving this piece of memory from a world gone by. All the photos from those years were scanned and collected into a photo album, which was published by the Katowice-based foundation unContemporary and can be viewed as part of an exhibition at the Fryna Gallery.
For guests who wished to visit the exhibition, which was on view until December, we also prepared a very visually sophisticated set of three black-and-white photographs interpreting the theme of memory in different ways. The set included photos submitted by Janusz Wojcieszak, Marcin Bawca and Krzysztof Szlapa. Our sincere congratulations!
Photo Club "The Source".
Aleksander Orszulik, Krzysztof Styj, Bartosz Klosek and Luke Cyrus (source: https://kfg-lawiny.blogspot.com/2023/11/zwyciezcy-konkursu-fotografii-gorskiej.html)
