posted by Sharon Rainis on 2009/06/03
“Aphrodite” – The Cyprus Experience Competition
The Winning Ceremony (June 6th)
On Saturday, waiting for the ceremony all day was pretty difficult. Participants all pretended that they are simply having a good time, shopping around, lying on the beach, having some rest, till one of the photographers finally spoke out, admitting the truth- “Is it just me or is this day taking FOREVER??”
Between us, as much as I found Larnaka’s beaches and streets beautiful, “forever” was an understatement.
Finally, the evening arrived and the ceremony began. The ceremony took place at the middle of Larnaka’s promenade, which was full of visitors who came for the Sea Festival. Therefore, aside from all event participants, many passer-by visitors stopped by in order to observe the ceremony, creating a magnificent crowd, which only made this evening feel even more meaningful. Everybody was dressed up, looking at their best, hoping that they will have a chance to get up on stage and add a nice accessory-huge-check, along with a huge smile, to their outfit.
The great atmosphere among all photographers during the whole week of the competition added to the high expectations as well. We were not only hoping to win ourselves, but also keeping our fingers crossed for our dear colleagues, which we accomplished such a close relationship with during the week. The first winner announced was Stephan Horvath from Germany, who won the first prize of the Amateurs category. As someone who previously participated in quite a few underwater photography competitions, I must admit that images submitted to the Amateurs category this time were extraordinary and could probably be considered as fine images in the professional category as well on other competitions. Therefore, when Tobias Friedrich from Germany came up on stage to collect the second prize in the Amateurs category, he was quite disappointed, as his images were absolutely wonderful. This way or another, it was the first time that Tobias has ever took part in an underwater photography competition, and he already got the chance to take a prize back home, which is a privilege that most of us (hmm-hmm) never accomplished. The third place was granted to Paraskevas Vasiliou from Cyprus, who made the local crowd very proud.
The second category was the Zenobia 5 Best Images, in which Patrick Neumann from Germany was announced as the winner. At this point I must share that the morning before, when Patrick was selecting the images he will submit to the competition, he was still a little bit drunk due to the great celebration all photographers had the night before, after completing their dives. A moment before he burned his chosen images and submitted them, a few of his colleagues, including myself, asked to take a look at his work. The first three images were absolutely remarkable, but as he kept on, we found out that two of his selected images are photos of an air gauge of an empty tank. Amazed by his bizarre decision, we immediately assumed that he didn’t have any better images to submit and therefore compromised for these two. However, when Patrick browsed through his other images, just to make sure that there are no better ones than the wonderful shot he got of an empty air gauge, we discovered that the rest of his images are STUNNING by all means and that Patrick is simply too drunk to make such fateful decisions right now. I can only say that choosing 5 winning images out of his great database was so amazingly easy and he deserved the prize he got by all means.
Next was the Best Singular Entry, also named “Life on the Zenobia”. Though most of us interpreted this title as a good shot of a fish or a coral on the Zenobia, Paula Faiferman from Argenita, the winner of this category, had other plans for it. She took a wonderful image of a diver silhouette sitting on the Zenobia’s rescue boat, as if he is about to jump outside of it. This image was impressive not only due to its photography technique, but also because of the idea that in the past 29 years, humans have not been part of the life on the Zenobia, and Paula still found a way to perpetuate them on the wreck again.
Then we got to the Environmental Conservation Advertising Campaign, in which Ronny Fogelman from Israel got the first prize. Or perhaps I should say- finally got the first prize… In the past few years, I have attended many competitions in which Ronny participated, and for a while it seemed like every time again, something happens which stands in his way to the prize. Whether it was equipment malfunction, flight delays or lack of air, Ronny always seemed to only almost get there (which did not stop him, of course, from arriving at the beginning of each competition and screaming out loud “Ok, guys, you can all leave now as I’m here and I’m about to take the prize!! Don’t bother wasting your time!”). This time, Ronny made it to the first prize with a lovely campaign of an underwater demonstration, protesting against environmental violations. Although his campaign was beautiful and creative, Ronny was still surprised when he was announced as the winner, and ended up crying for 30 long minutes after getting off the stage. Now here’s a dream come true!!
The video clip category consisted of two first place winners, as it was difficult to decide which produced a better video- Addie Reiss from Israel or Edward Snijders from Netherlands. Addie’s video was a breathtaking film, telling a story and making use of many cinematography techniques. On the other hand, Edward’s video consisted of more promotional elements and was more attractive as a marketing campaign, which was part of the standards defined ahead in this category. Therefore, the two talented videographers had to split the prize among them, thus increasing the number of total winners in the competition.
Last was the Fashion & Nudity category, in which I took part in. This is not the right place for my personal story, but to make a long story short, about a month before the competition, I found out that Anatoly Beloshchin from Russia, a professional and worshiped underwater fashion photographer, was planning to attend this competition as well, and this discovery pretty much lowered my expectations of winning to zero. Although my model, Hagar Cohen, and I decided that this time we are here to win and not just here for the experience (as we cautiously stated on previous competitions), and although we have both worked extremely hard during the days of the competition, as well as during the month before, due to my admiration of Anatoly’s work, I was afraid to await the prize. The moment in which my name was announced as the winner of this category was one I will surely cherish for life. As I grabbed the hand of Hagar, my model, and we both went up on stage together, I forgot my promise to myself and let the tears trickle.
After the ceremony, all of us, judges, producers, photographers, losers and winners, went out to celebrate. No matter if you lost in the competition, won it or simply came to witness it, the great week we had all shared together was a good enough reason to raise a toast (or fifteen toasts…) to celebrate this unique experience, hoping that we will get the chance to meet again next year in the same place, at the same time, on the Zenobia’s 30th birthday!
related articles
