Photography News | Issue 39 | absolutephoto.com
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Interview
Red Bull Illume ImageQuest 2016 The fourth edition of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest saw a record-breaking 34,624 images submitted by photographers from 120 countries. We speak to those involved and this year’s winner Competition special
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Judge – Apoorva Prasad
What advice would you give to photographers considering entering the next competition? As you can see from the winners, a lot of work is put in – before, during and after. Before, it’s about spending time with the best athletes and creating a rapport with them; travelling and shooting endlessly to capture the soul of the experience you are looking to document. During – it’s more than just taking the picture – it’s about the set-up, the timing, practice, and endless shots you ‘lose’ because they aren’t perfect. I think in this case, the ‘10,000 hours’ rule, if you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers , applies – practice endlessly and send in your very best work!
What’s it like being a judge for the contest? I’m the founder and editor-in-chief of The Outdoor Journal , and CEO of The Outdoor Voyage and was honoured when the Red Bull Illume team asked me to become a judge for the 2016 competition. I signed the paperwork immediately and soon after received the judging prints. It was incredibly hard to down-select from the incredible images that formed part of the main selection for us. I would say almost all the images that we the judges saw were good enough to win awards. After that it’s a matter of preference between the 50+ judges and what we as individuals see in the work in front of us. I had all the prints laid out on a
powerful about the human condition. I look for all of these in the images I choose.
dining table and pored over them for a few hours, marking ones I liked. It was very hard.
What was it about the winning image that really caught your eye? The image was aesthetically perfect, of course. But in addition to that, the framing and mirror- image reflection creates something that wouldn’t be there without a photographer’s eye – the circle referencing the eye. The bike and athlete that draw the viewer’s eye are perfectly framed by colours of the forest around the frame. It was the right time, right place and of course the photographer and athlete’s work, all together.
What do you look for in a winning image? Photography today is in a unique space in the history of the art form. We are inundated with all kinds of images and the process of creating them has become completely democratised. However – it’s still extremely hard to create incredible photography – it requires awareness, an ability to create stillness in the framing, yet capturing emotion in a single image. It requires connecting aesthetic form with a knowledge of art history. It finally requires an ability to express something
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