Photography News 01

Competitions

INTERVIEW

Words by Will Cheung

Trierenberg Super Circuit Do well at the Trierenberg Super Circuit and you know your photography is going places, but it isn’t easy. Photography News caught up with the organiser Chris Hinterobermaier for his advice on how to win

T he Trierenberg Super Circuit (TSC) is the world’s biggest annual contest of photographic art. This year’s contest attracted 97,000 entries from 109 countries. Get accepted or win a medal in this salon and you know you’ve done well, not just because of the sheer numbers involved but also because the standard of the entries is so high. Past British winners include Christine Widdell, Marco Pozzi, Peter Rees and Mike Lawrence; in clubs, medals have gone to Stourbridge PS, Smethwick PS, West Cumbria Photo Group and Edinburgh PS, among others. Chris Hinterobermaier founded the TSC in 1992 and he also organises the Al-Thani Awards for Photography. We caught up with him as he went about his busy schedule promoting his contests. After seeing an exhibition of work by Argentinian photographer Pedro Luis Raota, Chris himself took up photography aged 16. Between 1985 and 1995 Chris won over 700 awards from all over the world for his inventive imagery, and had 80 personal exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the USA. So, with all this personal success, why did he set up the TSC? “I invented the TSC [it started originally as the Austrian

Super Circuit] in 1992 to oer Austrian photography enthusiasts a chance to see international trends and developments in our country rather than having to travel to galleries abroad,” he explained. “We tried our best right from the start to try to force up the level of photography. In the public’s opinion back in the early 90s photography was still kind of a ifth wheel on the car of art – that has changed greatly in the past two decades. “For the irst contest we got an overwhelming response compared with what we expected. We received 12,000 entries from 30 countries. This year we got 97,000 entries from 109 countries. To cope with this we have ive people working constantly on the TSC and that increases to 30 at the busy times.” The UK has done well in the past and individuals and clubs continue to pick up acceptances, medals and awards, but the competition is iercer than ever. Chris tells us that China now has the largest number of entrants and winners, but Indonesia and the Arab countries are up-and-coming areas too. With so many great entries we asked Chris for his advice on how to succeed. “It’s very easy,” he says, “all you have to do is wake up the judging jury with something surprising and dierent. Remember,

ABOVE Untitled. Dmitry Ageev, Russia.

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