On February 9, an exhibition opened at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall best works competition participants reportage photography "Silver Camera", dedicated to the life of Moscow and significant events in the city.
The exhibition features best pictures competitors in three categories: “Architecture”, “Events and Everyday Life” and “Persons”. Thus, the viewer will see photographs of Moscow from observation points, reports from underground rivers, portraits of people in the subway, and more. The authors of the works were: famous photographers, so amateurs and even schoolchildren.
This year the “Silver Camera” is being held for the fifteenth time, and in addition to the works of the competitors, the organizers included in the exhibition photographs of Moscow of the last century.
The objectives of the competition, established by the Moscow Government and the Moscow Department of Culture, were to create a photo chronicle of modern Moscow, as well as support Russian photographers. In addition, one of the goals of the competition was to attract non-professionals to participate in it, discover new names, and get young people interested in photography and photojournalism. The first Silver Camera competition was held in 2000. Over the years, stars have taken part in the competition modern photography, among whom: Igor Mukhin, Boris Savelyev, Alexander Abaza, Valery Shchekoldin, Vadim Gushchin, Sergey Bermenyev, Yuri Palmin, Pavel Kassin, etc., largely thanks to the competition, the audience discovered the work of Vladimir Mishukov, Natalia Maximova, Vasily Popov, Eduard Ilyin, Ilya Egorkin. The youngest participant in the competition was 10 years old, the oldest Grand Prix winner, Igor Makov, was 75 years old.
A solemn ceremony of awarding the winners of the “Silver Camera” photo competition took place at the Multimedia Art Museum.
For more than 10 years, the competition established by the Moscow House of Photography museum has been fulfilling the task of preserving modern national history, popularization and development of Russian photography, as well as support for young authors. Amateurs and professionals, novice photographers and recognized masters can take part in the show.
“Photographers who send their works create a photo chronicle of the city, document important events and phenomena. The winners’ photographs end up in our fund and are then shown at exhibitions, thanks to which we see how Moscow and Muscovites are changing,” noted Nina, deputy director of the Moscow House of Photography museum for exhibition work and curator of the Silver Camera competition, during the award ceremony. Levitin. She also emphasized that the competition began with isolated individual photographs, and today photographers bring entire projects and conduct focused work.
In 2013, more than 600 series of photographs were submitted to the Silver Camera competition. Of these, the jury, headed by Olga Sviblova, director of the Moscow House of Photography museum, selected about 700 photographs. The photographers captured the celebration of the 120th anniversary of GUM, the everyday life of library and museum employees, ecological problems cities, numerous visitors to parks and different kinds leisure
Traditionally, awards were presented in three categories. The winner in the “Events and Everyday Life” category was Andrei Stenin for the series “Them and Us.” In the “Architecture” category, the main award went to Ivan Mikhailov for his “House-Temple” series. The winner of the prize in the “Faces” category was Natalya Maksimova for her series “Generation T”. Each laureate received 176 thousand rubles.
In addition, an award was presented in the “Audience Award” nomination - 144 thousand rubles. In the period from January to February 2014, the applicants' works could be seen at an exhibition held in the Tsar's Tower of the Kazan Station. The photographs had only the name of the series and the number - so that visitors to the exhibition voted absolutely impartially for their favorite series, filling out questionnaires in the hall or on the competition website. The winner of this award was Daria Nabieva for her series “Generals of Concrete Walls”.
The Silver Camera photo competition was established by the Moscow House of Photography museum, the Moscow Government, the Moscow Department of Culture and is supported by Russian Railways. His the main objective- support Russian photojournalists. As the organizers note, “photojournalism or street-photography, which plays an important role in photographic archiving of modern history, is experiencing better times" But thanks to the competition, interest in photographic works of this kind is being revived.
// Text and photos provided by the project organizer //
The government of Moscow; Moscow Department of Culture; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow / Museum "Moscow House of Photography" presents an anniversary exhibition of works by participants in the competition for the best photo report about Moscow "Silver Camera - 2014".
Strategic partners of the competition: MasterCard, Rosbank, Renault, Ahmad Tea, Panasonic.
The Moscow House of Photography Museum presents an exhibition of participants in the 15th anniversary competition for the best photo report about Moscow “Silver Camera - 2014”. Just like fifteen years ago, the exhibition will be held at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall. This time, in addition to the works of the competitors for 2014, the exhibition includes a series of Grand Prix winners of the competition for all years, in addition, the exhibition includes a large historical section telling how professional and non-professional photographers saw Moscow in the last century.
The idea of the “Silver Camera” competition arose in the late 90s, it was a unique time when every day the most seemingly incredible ideas arose and were developed, the wildest dreams and projects were realized, creative Moscow was seething like a huge cauldron, the appearance of the city was rapidly changing, the faces of Muscovites were changing. The desire to record and document these changes seemed completely natural and necessary, especially since a similar tradition in one form or another already existed in many European capitals. Thus, for many years, the French Department of Culture has been systematically collecting and exhibiting works of both old and modern photographic art dedicated to Paris, usually regularly donated to the city by the photographers themselves. The photographs are kept in the Museum contemporary art Paris, in the Historical Library of Paris, in the collection of the European House of Photography, etc.
The objectives of the competition, established by the Moscow Government and the Moscow Department of Culture, were to create a photo chronicle of modern Moscow, as well as to support photo reporters in Russia, because today photojournalism or street-photography, which plays the most important role of photo archiving of modern history, is going through hard times, and the state order for targeted photography of modern Russian history at all times was the exception rather than the rule. At the same time, we know the history of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries mainly thanks to such orders. In addition, one of the goals was to attract non-professionals to participate in the competition, discover new names, and get young people interested in photography and photojournalism.
The first Silver Camera competition was held in 2000. A series of photographs taken in 1999-2000 were selected to participate in the competition. As today, the competition was held in three categories: “Architecture”, “Events and everyday life”, “Persons”. The competition has always been open, both amateurs and professionals, schoolchildren and students, and masters of Russian photography could take part in it.
Grand Prix winners are selected at a jury meeting, which includes leading photographers, film editors from reputable metropolitan media, and heads of museums and galleries in Moscow.
Much has changed over the 15 years of the Silver Camera's existence. From the Manege, the traditional exhibition of the competition participants moved to the Moscow House of Photography museum, and then to the Tsar’s Tower of the Kazan Station. Technologies are developing rapidly, opening up new and new opportunities for modern photographers. In 2000, only one series of photographs was accepted for the competition, made using digital camera— today more than half of the participants work with digital. The curator of the competition recalls that during the selection of series for the competition, photographers often came with backpacks full of photographs, and in recent years the works have been sent directly to the competition website. Participants' attention to detail has noticeably increased: level of printing, paper quality, etc.
Since 2000, stars of modern photography have taken part in the competition, including: Igor Mukhin, Boris Savelyev, Alexander Abaza, Valery Shchekoldin, Vadim Gushchin, Sergey Bermenyev, Yuri Palmin, Pavel Kassin, etc., largely thanks to the competition, viewers discovered creativity of Vladimir Mishukov, Natalia Maksimova, Vasily Popov, Eduard Ilyin, Ilya Egorkin. The youngest participant in the competition was 10 years old, the oldest Grand Prix winner, Igor Makov, was 75 years old.
For 15 years, participants in the “Silver Camera” competition have been sensitive to the prevailing mood in society, noticing all the changes taking place in the city, as evidenced by annual exhibitions. In 2012, photographers captured mass protests, the historical reconstruction of the Battle of Borodino, and the updated Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. Gorky; in 2013, the focus was on the celebration of the 120th anniversary of GUM, the city’s environmental problems, problems of loneliness and computer addiction. Reports made for “Silver Camera - 2014” talk about the reconstruction of VDNKh, holidays and festivals, the Peace March, and family values. This year, many personal, intimate stories were submitted to the competition, exploring a person’s relationship with the world, analyzing the difficulties and joys that the heroes face along this path.
One of the most important prizes of the Silver Camera competition is still the Audience Award. As always, every visitor to the exhibition will be able to feel like a member of the jury and choose the winners of the competition by filling out a form in the hall or voting on the competition website www.silvercamera.ru. All photographs exhibited in the Manege have only the series name and number, which will allow everyone to vote for their favorite photo report absolutely impartially. Based on the results of audience voting, the laureate will be determined and will receive a prize comparable to the main awards of the competition.
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MDF IN SEARCH OF ANDREAS GURSKY
Hello!
I managed to visit the “Silver Camera 2007” in Manege before closing. It’s not that I really wanted to get there: I still couldn’t get out, but it would be wrong not to go to the exhibition at all: I wanted to see what our Moscow photographers breathe, how they see Moscow.
The overall impression of the exhibition is quite depressing: no more than 5-7 episodes are really worth going and watching. Everything else is very, very weak. And not at all interesting. In addition, the compositions are lame, photographers strive for a color scheme where they can get by in black and white and vice versa. There are a lot of unedited pictures: I took them = printed them in the lab = gave them away. Probably, the chain that provided for the author's vision, which required the participation of the photographer at all stages of preparing the photograph for printing (took, developed/processed on the computer, printed/monitored the printing in the laboratory), was lost.
So what about individual nominations? If we talk about “Architecture”, we can perhaps highlight several series and one pattern, which I will dwell on later.
About the series. I really liked “20 views of a picturesque bridge” by Lyudmila Zinchenko. Silence, enjoyment of light, lines, COLOR... Great pleasure from viewing photographs. Perhaps L. Zinchenko is more representative than the Moscow one, but rather the Leningrad one (precisely the Leningrad one, which developed in Soviet years) school of photography, only perhaps a color version of this school.
Somewhat strange, but Raul Skrylev’s photographs look quite professional.
If we talk about the undisputed leader in this nomination, then it is certainly the series “New photographs of disappearing buildings”, prepared by the young Moscow photographer Sasha Auebach. And most importantly: hand-printed photographs! And this is a single copy.
The next category is “Events and Everyday Life”. This is the most numerous nomination. I managed to find decent work here too. Firstly, these are photographs of Andrei Luft “Heat” with crazy, “absolutely fucking youth” ©
It’s impossible not to notice two series by Dmitry Zverev: “Metro” (for some reason not presented in the main exhibition at the Manege) and “Moscow Out of Time”.
The series “Passing By” by Alexander Slyusarev attracts attention. On the Internet it looks much less interesting than on the wall in the Manege. Professional processing, professional printing, good hanging - everything plays into SanSanych’s hands (smile). I repeat – the Internet option is several orders of magnitude worse.
And finally, the final nomination is “Faces”. I don't even know what to say. THERE IS NOTHING AT ALL. In the most successful, “watchable” places hang two episodes by Vladimir Mishukov: “Child” and “Glory”. And if the first one - “Child” - with all the professionalism of the execution and with all the desire, cannot in any way be classified as reportage photography (and photography in general: it’s more like cinema, a very professional cinema), then the second... is some kind of inhumane set of photographs . “Glory” completely disappears from my idea of Vladimir Mishukov as a photographer. If everything is as shown in the Manege, then Vyacheslav Polunin must be rescued urgently. The series left a grave impression. But this is if you bother, stop, look and think. Most spectators don't do this: they just pass by.
In conclusion, I would like to say about the observed pattern. This trend ran through all the series, most fully expressed in “Architecture.” There was a strong impression that MDF was looking for our Russian Andreas Gursky. But he's not there. At least not yet. How did I draw this conclusion? Yes, from a series of photographs (?) of different authors (you can see them on my LiveJournal page here: http://michael-kondrov.livejournal.com/)
So what's the bottom line? Yes, actually, nothing special, everything was the same as in the past few years. It's hard to say whether the Silver Camera has hit rock bottom. Because this idea already existed in relation to last year’s competition. But no, this one, from 2007, is even weaker. It’s also sad that there are very few bright “outbursts” that would somehow justify the advisability of holding, if not an exhibition, then a competition as a whole. Let us hope for the best. As always.
The exhibition “Silver Camera - 2014”, which will be held from February 6 to 25, 2015 at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall, is an annual competition between professionals and amateurs for the best photo reports about the capital. Over the 15 years of the competition’s existence, several hundred talented photographers took part in it, thanks to whose skills it was possible to create a kind of photo chronicle of Moscow life beginning of the XXI century.
In accordance with the rules, both experienced photographers and novice photographers can participate in the competition. The main condition of the competition is to capture the scene of metropolitan life from an unusual point of view and make a report from 7-15 photographs.
The exhibition-competition “Silver Camera” is held in several categories:
- "Faces";
- "Architecture";
- “New Moscow in Lumix Focus”;
- "Events and Everyday Life".
All photographs presented at the exhibition will have only a series and number, which will give visitors the opportunity to impartially vote for the photo report they like. Based on the results of the audience vote, the winner will be determined and the prize will be awarded. In each category two prizes and a Grand Prix will be awarded.
The uniqueness of the photo competition lies in the fact that it not only encourages and supports talented photographers in their creative activities, but also annually records the history of the capital of our country in an original way.
Moscow, pl. Manezhnaya, 1.
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