SCREENings Award 2010 : Michael M. Maschke announces the three winners and the top prize at the UPdate

The winners have been announced. Following the presentation of all 20 jury favourites as framed prints courtesy of seen.by & Halbe Rahmen at the UPdate at Palais im Zoo, Frankfurt, Michael-M.Maschke, Head of Creative Services, Saatchi & Saatchi Deutschland, announced the three winners of the online photography competition: Brooklyn-based Debora Mittelstaedt from Cologne, Wouter van den Brink (Netherlands) and Alexandra Hager from Vienna.

All three winners receive an ad in LÜRZER’S Archive magazine and Premium GoSee Membership.

Alexandra Hager, winner of the top prize, a high-end shoot with equipment from DRS and Hasselblad in Berlin, also attended the Presence Library in person and was overwhelmed and surprised upon hearing she had won. The photographer’s lovingly shot kids photos won over the hearts of the jury, and plenty of art buyers and creatives also wanted to view her book.

The week before the top class jury took many days and nights to screen the 120 portfolios, which had been pre-selected from thousands of entries. We would like to use this opportunity to once again say thank you! It is the photography and creativity, rather than the actual website, that makes up the deciding criteria. The aim of the competition is to provide photographers with an uncomplicated, yet qualified means of contacting industry insiders and important decision makers in the photography sector.

The jury was also positively surprised by the often little known portfolios and so all 120 selected photographers are winners. Tina Krakow, Head of Art Buying, McCann Erickson Germany: “I saw great, unusual photography.”

Bianca Winter, Deputy Head of Art Buying, Jung von Matt Hamburg, also made the trip to Frankfurt, to find out which three photographers made it into the finale. A wide spectrum of photography was covered, including classic fashion photography, documentary, landscape and lifestyle. Despite all differences – which the jury also experienced – the top three were a tight squeeze, but clear-cut all the same.

Veronika von Prittwitz, Condé Nast Verlag, Munich: “…besides technically mature and already established photographers, several newcomers stood out through their undefined and yet conceptually sound approaches.”

All 20 finalists are also presented in the XXL UPdate magazine. Email office @up-date.ws for further info.