Above image © by Frank Hallam Day
Solms, Germany (June 22, 2012) – First prize in this year’s highly prestigious photography competition, the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2012’, will go to U.S. photographer Frank Hallam Day. For his award-winning portfolio, entitled ‘Alumascapes’, he will receive a Leica M9-P camera and a lens worth approximately €10,000, as well as a cash prize of €5,000. The second winner in the competition is Piotr Zbierski from Poland. His portfolio, ‘Pass by Me’, will be bestowed the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award 2012’ and a Leica M9-P with lens. The prizes will be presented on July 3, 2012 at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie photographic festival in Arles, in the south of France. All portfolios entered for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2012 can be viewed at www.leica-oskar-barnack-award.com.
Throughout his photographic career, Frank Hallam Day has concerned himself with many different aspects of the medium. Following numerous projects that primarily focused on political issues, his work has now increasingly turned towards exploring the relationships between man and the environment. To highlight this dynamic, Frank Hallam Day shoots predominantly at night to reveal a suggestive and ambiguous side of the world. The latest example of this is illustrated by his winning portfolio ‘Alumascapes’. This photographic project shows the results of a month-long journey through Florida. In his images, Frank Hallam Day depicts the phenomenon of man and his environment in a unique manner and makes recreational vehicles (RV’s) – ultra-modern, high-tech and luxury homes on wheels – the brightly lit and dazzling stars of his pictures. They seem to be inextricably entwined in the jungle landscapes of Florida at night and appear as essential islands of security in a dark and hostile environment. The RV’s protect their owners with a feeling of safety and comfort in the lap of luxury. Of course, this form of escape no longer has much to do with the love of nature, relinquishing everyday luxuries or winding down. Frank Hallam Day’s images reveal that the relationship between man and the environment is more ambiguous than ever before.
This ambiguity is further emphasized by the double-edged title of his portfolio. On the one hand, the word ‘Alumascapes’ is an invention created by the photographer to describe landscapes dominated by vehicles constructed from aluminum. Simultaneously, the title is also the brand name of an RV model that is seen in several of his images. Other models shown in his work bear names with similar connotations, like Wilderness, Mountaineer, Escaper, Cougar and Falcon. In their inference of a certain closeness to and simultaneous alienation from the world of nature, they too are characteristic of the paradoxical relationship between modern man and the environment. This is precisely what the photographer reveals in his images: the brightly lit mobile homes cower and hide themselves between the trees. The mood is gloomy and grim, and communicates a feeling of escape, furtiveness, isolation and fear. Although his images appear posed and artificial, they are not. The residents of the vehicles are never seen – they knew nothing of the presence of the photographer. This is because they sit safely and securely, generally watching TV in the bright and air-conditioned security of their luxurious homes away from home – believing they are in perfect harmony with the natural world around them.
Frank Hallam Day’s work has been shown in numerous international exhibitions and is represented in many galleries and private collections. The winner of numerous prizes and scholarships, Frank Hallam Day lives in Washington, D.C. and has worked as a lecturer for photography at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Above image © by Piotr Zbierski
‘Pass by me’, the winning portfolio for the ‘Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award 2012’, represents the culmination of a project which Polish photographer Piotr Zbierski has been working on for five years. In his long-term project entitled ‘White Elephant’, the photographer explores the expression of emotions and the question of to what extent they can alter reality. In this, he is particularly fascinated by chance encounters. His view of people in the role of an impartial observer, fleeting encounters with strangers – without prior knowledge of his subjects – enables him to see what is pure and essential: people and their entire world of emotions. In the words of Piotr Zbierski, ‘I chose photography because it lets me get very close to people. It is the only medium with a directness that lets me show the existence of the imagination in the real world.’ In his images, he concentrates on faces, gestures, the expression of feelings and relationships. His images have no pretension of being original, but instead are authentic. They depict scenes from the heart of life itself, captured at a wide variety of locations. The majority were shot on journeys through eastern Europe and India. Although the portfolio appears to have a random structure at first sight, an underlying order and relationship exists between the images. Together they build an entirety and relate a story of happiness, memories and encounters characterized by the photographer’s own particular style.
Piotr Zbierski, born in 1987, attended the Polish National Film School from 2006 to 2012 and graduated with a master’s degree. Selected images from his ‘White Elephant’ projects have already been shown in various exhibitions in Poland, Russia and Portugal.
The Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2012 recorded a new record of over 2,800 entries (last year, 2,000 entries were received). Professional photographers from 101 countries took part in the competition. The majority of this year’s submissions came from Germany, China and the USA. The jury members included: Bruce Gilden, Magnum Photographer; Stephan Erfurt, Director of the C/O Berlin; Valérie Fougeirol, Creative Director of the Magnum Gallery in Paris, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Artistic Director of the Leica Galerie in Salzburg and Brigitte Schaller, Art Director of Leica Fotografie International Magazine.
The Previous Winners
