However equipped we are with the genious technical achievements of the 21st century and the illusions of high-tech, we are still puzzled by the invention of photography which goes back to a past of two centuries. How can a moment of bygone times be preserved and stay with us? How is it possible that so many personal emotions and thoughts are provoked by a single sheet of paper, or an image frozen on the screen of a computer? This is the magic we are now trying to evoke when publishing our new international photo contest titled Here We Are. This is a time when we can have a closer look at the tiniest details and open our hearts to the world of our own imagination.
András Krizsán DLA Chairman of the Association of Hungarian Architects
The year 2012 saw the moment when 50 % of the entire population of Planet Earth became a town- or citydweller. Since then the significance of our built environment has risen to an unprecedented new scale and level which makes a world of difference compared to earlier periods of human history.
This change of proportions is clearly reflected in the spread and evolution of architectural photography which we experience all round the world nowadays. Our image of man-made environments as well as our co-existence with urban phenomena produce new aspects from time to time. This contest is targeted to raise awareness of all these tendencies: to view the buildings and humans, the urban sphere and the lives of cities and towns, the relations between natural and urban landscapes with an open-minded approach. As the publishers of this contest we would like to move architectural photography over the boundaries of its professional medium in order to bring it closer to the wider public of non-professionals. For several millennia now, the essence of visual arts has been thinking about the relationship between mankind and its environment in images. In the 21st century the humanisation of our artificial environment has evolved into a key issue. For a long time now architecture has not been exclusively a case of professionals specialized in architecture. In the wake of this tendency, architectural photography has also grown out of its former status: instead of being part of the creative activities of photographers who work in co-operation with architects, it has turned into a communicating medium using images in comprehensive dialogues to engage areas of society, psychology, aesthetics and technology concerning society as such.
An exhibition is going to be opened in Budapest in November, 2017 to present the winning as well as the shortlisted finalist photos of the contest. From here the exhibition is to be moved on to Bratislava, Prague and Cracow at the beginning of the year 2018. All the photos exhibited are also to be published in a special issue of the Hungarian Architecture magazine exclusively devoted to this topic. We are hereby inviting photographs in two categories: open and professional.
07. 08. 2017 - Registration starts
25. 09. 2017 - Latest date for submitting photographs
http://photoaward.meonline.hu/