FIX Photo Awards 2020
WELCOME TO ‘FIX Still Life’ #FIXstilllife
This year is a poignant one, with the Covid19 pandemic changing the world as we know it, the importance of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, huge protests in Latin America on International Women’s Day and all of us re-assessing how to live, work and play.
The theme this year is ‘FIX Still Life’ was open to the entrants interpretation. We are delighted with the results!
Remember to also post and follow us @fixphotofestival on Instagram using the hashtag #FIXstilllife to watch the IGTV interviews with the 3 winners, which will be announced very soon!
With 184 works selected for the exhibition, including the new ‘Judge’s Choice’ whereby each of the five judges will select works from the other shortlisted on display in both categories for a special mention.
*Please note: Each gallery lists all exhibiting artists in the description.
Much thanks to our Sponsors, KIVO 3D & Genesis Imaging
CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO ENTER A GALLERY
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
JOANNA EPSTEIN
RUNNERS UP: NICOLO SERTORIO & ROY MEHTA
After the judging we asked each Guest Judge to write a few thoughts about ‘FIX Still Life’ 2020
“In a contradictory world where being judgemental is an anathema, we are subjected to tests and rites of passage throughout our lives. Interviews, exams, and memberships of clans are designed to selectively include. The act of being a judge in a photo contest is an uncomfortable one. It assumes that photographs can be quantified and packaged and weighed against one another. The medium resists such categorisation. The most provocative photographs refuse to be hemmed in. The joy of seeing that resistance is one of the pleasures of being in what might otherwise be an uncomfortable role. Some images went quietly into the boxes that had been created for them. Others kicked and yelled. It is the images that screamed the most that we present to you. Some will call them winners. I call them rebels.” Shahidul Alam
“As varying tastes go, so too go adage clichés like those that designate pictures must encompass a thousand singular words to be admissible! Images, literal, not literal, or apparent, confirming that much of the unfamiliar world remains mysterious even when it appears familiar. One-word explanations alone sometimes suffice! Love, honor, respect, solitude, sadness, happiness, glory—hope! Entries this year revolved around a singular theme. What does the human visual world look like during a pandemic? Imagines arrived as we think they'd come. Photos were taken from a window at a park while distancing; at s respite spot for elderly folks already isolated in regular times. Images were encompassing the surreal presence of bees in the woodlands signaling rebirth and renewed hope. Worlds apart, I instantly imagined desolation because I lived it as we lived it. And it was as frightening there in that solitary place as is was tender. We are social creatures by nature—ones suddenly obliged to exist in isolation. In this, unusual glimpses emerge of how the human mind manages difficulty. Our pleasure, our displeasure, our pain, our collective reasoning of netherworlds living in discontent. Perception, our collective ability to discern normal from biased, reliable from disagreeable, the familiar from the unfamiliar. We are drawn instantly into the mysteries that make us content and unites us. Pictures are one word, they are many words, they are us, in a pandemic, we are all of it and some!” Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
“It was a real pleasure to be on the judging panel of #FIXstilllife for FIX Photo Awards 2020, and see the many different renditions of the theme, whether poetic, or experimental, or literal. My feeling is competitions such as this allow ever more artists to rise to the surface in a busy global photographic community, affording them an opportunity through a democratic method to at least exhibit their work alongside others who may be at different stages in their careers. At the same time, the public has a chance to see work produced both in the UK and from abroad, that might have been otherwise overlooked by mainstream platforms of promotion.” Jennie Ricketts
"Thank you so much to FIX Photo Festival for having me in the judging panel this year. As always - and specially this year, in this very peculiar historic moment - meeting new people, confronting ideas and views it is a great opportunity for inner growth. I am very impressed by the quality of the works and by the variety of presentations and photographic approach. Thank you to Laura Noble for making this happen and thank you to my fellow judges it has been an honour to be among such a great crowd. I am looking forward to seeing the entire show online from Italy as I’m sure with others throughout the globe.” Yvonne De Rosa
FIX Photo Awards Judging Panel
Shahidul Alam, Laura Noble, Jennie Ricketts, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Yvonne De Rosa
Judges: Shahidul Alam, Laura Noble, Jennie Ricketts, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Yvonne De Rosa
SHAHIDUL ALAM is a renowned photojournalist and commenter, and the founder of the Bangladeshi multimedia training organization the Pathshala Media Institute and the Drik photo library. He also co-founded the photo agency Majority World and the Chobi Mela Festival, a pioneering photography festival in Bangladesh. His photographs of life in Bangladesh, as well as of protests and the environment, are well known in his country and around the world.
Just hours after an Al-Jazeera interview with Alam had been posted online discussing the Bangladeshi student protests calling for safer roads following the death of two children on a bus a group of about 40 men who said they were from the detective branch of Dhaka police took him forcibly from his home.
The day after Alam was arrested, a court in Dhaka ordered that he be held for seven days pending investigation into allegations that he violated the country’s Information and Communication Technology Act by spreading propaganda and false information on electronic media against the government. When he appeared in court, Alam was unable to walk without assistance as he had been tortured. FIX Photo Festival joined the #FreeShahidulAlam campaignalongside a global response from thousands of people around the world including the Committee to Protect Journalists, raising his case in the U.N. event on imprisoned journalists with human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. After CPJ raised Alam’s case before the European Parliament, the body passed an urgency resolution on the human rights situation in Bangladesh and called on authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the journalist.
In November 2018, 102 days after he was detained, Alam was freed on bail.FIX Photo Festival proudly exhibited his work at the festival in December 2018, glad to be celebrating his release, not still campaigning for his release. “Journalists speak truth to power,” Alam said in an interview, “that is why, generally, they end up in jail.”
LAURA NOBLE is an artist, the Director of LANG and founder of FIX Photo Festival. She is a curator, writer, lecturer and mentor. Her writing is published in numerous journals, magazines and her blog has a large following. Noble is an avid collector of art and the author of The Art of Collecting Photography, as well as numerous essays in photographic monographs.
She champions established and emerging talent and conducts consulting services, portfolio reviews and mentoring which is in great demand. Her independent curation is also a passion where she works with artists from all over the world.
JENNIE RICKETTS is an independent photography editor, curator, consultant and mentor. For 17 years she was Picture Editor for The Observer Magazine, commissioning and editing photography which attracted international recognition and widespread publication.
She launched the Jennie Ricketts Gallery in Brighton in 2006 while writing and lecturing and now operates the gallery from County Wicklow, Ireland as an online space representing international photographers. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board for PhotoIreland, Dublin and a Trustee at Autograph ABP.
MANUEL RIVERA-ORTIZ has photographed the poor and disenfranchised around the world. His photographic stories of hardship and hope in some of the world’s poorest nations serve as a testament to the life he himself experienced growing up in Guayama, Puerto Rico. The landless, the forgotten, all play an integral role in the greater message of Rivera-Ortiz’ images: that no matter what, all life is sacred and every human on earth deserves the opportunity of a healthy, happy existence.
His major projects include the Mumbai slums Dharavi and Baiganwadi in India, the indigenous Aymara in the Andes and Altiplano regions in Bolivia and his breakout collection on tobacco workers of the Viñales Valley in Cuba.
After leaving Puerto Rico in the fall of 1979, Rivera-Ortiz moved with his family to Holyoke, MA, there he also attended summer school for the children of migrant workers at Mount Holyoke College, and at Springfield College where he took up the camera for the first time.
Rivera-Ortiz’s images now reside in many permanent public, corporate and private collections. His photography is also included in several books and he is currently working on a monograph book.
He is also the President & Founder of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation in Arles, France. The MRO Foundation exhibits primarily documentary photography and has a global following, exhibiting established and emerging talent.
YVONNE DE ROSA is a photographic artist who graduated in Political Science at Federico II University in Naples before studying photography in London with a post-graduate in Photography at Central Saint Martins, then a Masters in photo-journalism at the London College of Communication. Today she lives and work in Naples.
In 2003 Together with other colleagues, she founded the collective “24” exhibiting in public spaces in London, such as Trafalgar Square. Returning to Naples in 2015 she founded non-for profit Magazzini Fotografici of which she is the artistic director. De Rosa’s work focuses on a meta-narration that crosses and connects past and present. The photographic series she creates are originated from, at the same time, negatives and photographic materials, recovered and restored, with photographs taken by the artist herself, which add a contemporary point of view to the narrated story. De Rosa is also interested in environmental, socio-political issues, conflicts and psychological traumas.
Her books include Crazy God and her second monograph Hidden Identities: Unfinished with a preface by Sam Taylor Wood/Johnson was launched at her solo show at Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood. In 2016 the photographic project about the Italian so called “land of fire”, titled Terra Mia, was presented to the European Parliament, to the Committee of Human Rights.
De Rosa’s series Negativo 1930 was shown at the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation in 2019 the 50th Festival of the Rencontres d’Arles. In 2020 her work Correspondence was shown in Iran at the Hasht Cheshmeh Art Space of Kashan. De Rosa's research is now focused on the representation of memory and truth and on the documentary and narrative aspects of photography. She works with many forms of photography, sound and film.
Thanks to our sponsors:
FIX Photo Festival has teamed up with the global photography community network Photocrowd and innovative master printers Genesis Imaging to bring you the FIX Photo Festival Awards, giving you the chance to be exhibited at the Festival. Win great prizes and have your work judged by a panel of photography experts. The festival gives you invaluable exposure attracting a knowledgeable and influential crowd from the world of photography.
Four categories:
Connection, Essence, Structure, Year Of The Woman
Entries now closed for 2018
Category-Winning Images
4 Judged by the panel, 4 judged by popular crowd vote
Lea L’attentive
Congratulations for being the overall winner of FIX Photo Festival Awards 2018!
Runner-up Images
Top 10 Judge Vote and top 10 Crowd Vote images
Peggy Sue Amison - Artistic Director / East Wing, Doha, Qatar
Peggy Sue Amison is Artistic Director of East Wing - an international platform for photography based in Doha, Qatar. As a curator, strategist, photographic consultant and writer, Peggy Sue has collaborated with numerous emerging and established photographers, festivals, galleries and publications in Europe, Poland, China, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Qatar, and the UAE. Prior to working with East Wing, Peggy Sue was the Artistic Director of Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh / Cork, Ireland and is a past board member of Belfast Photo Festival in Northern Ireland. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Richard Chambury - Pixelrights
Richard Chambury has worked in the photography industry since leaving school, for 30 years, from local newspapers to working in Fleet Street and starting online imaging and printing businesses, specialising in global image syndication.
It was whilst working as a press photographer, predominantly in the News, Entertainment and Royalty fields he photographed the great & the good from Princess Diana to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Beyonce to Nelson Mandela, travelling the world extensively. He also worked extensively in film and television on location, photographing for public relations and marketing departments for promotion.
This ability to master working remotely, with plenty of digital hurdles in his way, has enabled him to learn and visiualise how to solve the problem of creatives working online, but with little knowledge of how to set up and operate in this digital world.
He regularly interviews photographers about their experiences, methods and techniques live on Facebook and Instagram with a large global following gaining exposure for all those who participate.
Jude Hull - Specialist, Head of Sale Photographs, Christie's London
Jude Hull is Specialist, Head of Sale in the Photographs Department in London. She has worked on numerous auctions in London, Paris and New York. Most recently launching Masterpieces of Design and Photography which presented masterpieces of both mediums for the first time in the same auction and set the world auction record, Robert Mapplethorpe. Closely involved with the sale of several important private collections she has also helped develop the department’s digital sales, curated exhibitions and speaks regularly on the subject of collecting photography.
Laura Noble - Founder of FIX Photo Festival, Director of L A Noble Gallery
Laura Noble is the Director of L A Noble Gallery (LANG) in London. She is also a curator and author of The Art Of Collecting Photography, with primary essays in many monographs including Form & Function Chloe Rosser, 2018 At Home with the Furries- Tom Broadbent, 2018, Estate - Robert Clayton, 2015, In Paradiso, Deborah Baker, 2014, Hidden Identities: Unfinished - Yvonne De Rosa, 2013, and many more.
Her blog has a global following with personal thoughts and opinions on the art world and art practice. She is a nominator for the global Prix Pictet Prize and also an Ambassador for the Royal Photographic Society’s 100 Heroines project and Docking Station in Amsterdam as well as being a judge on many photographic competitions and residency programmes. Her commitment to photography is paramount.
She curates at LANG and independently and lectures on all aspects of collecting photography, professional and gallery practice worldwide. As an avid collector, Laura prides herself on discovering new talent and writes extensively on photography in numerous journals.
With a commitment to emerging photographers, LANG delivers consultations for artists and collectors alike. Launching FIX Photo Festival on London’s South Bank in 2016 it gained worldwide recognition, with an expanded programme in 2017 and is poised for another successful year in the 2018 edition.
Venue: Menier Gallery, 51 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1RU
Tel: +44 (0)207 407 3222
FIX 2018 Opening Hours:
Wednesday 28 November 11:00 - 18:00
Thursday 29 November 11:00 - 18:00
Friday 30 November 11:00 - 18:00
Saturday 1 December. 11:00 - 15:00
Transport:
Tube / Overground: London Bridge / Borough
Thanks to our supporters
Category-Winning Images
4 Judged by the panel, 4 judged by popular crowd vote
Caroline Gavazzi
Congratulations for being the overall winner of FIX Photo Festival Awards 2017!
Runner-up Images
All exhibiting at FIX Photo Festival and printed by Lumejet
FIX Photo Festival's Projection Video
Video created by ©Photocrowd https://www.photocrowd.com
Judges
Laura Noble - Curator, Author and Director of L A Noble Gallery
Chris Steele-Perkins - Critically acclaimed, Magnum photographer known globally for his award winning reportage
Lottie Davies - Award winning photographer, writer and film maker
Ben Brain - Editor, Digital Camera magazine
