Photography News Issue 65

Photography News | Issue 65 | photographynews.co.uk

23 Interview

EarthPhoto 2019 Competition Ahead of the approaching Earth Photo competition deadline we caught up with Marissa Roth, photographer and chair of Earth Photo 2019, and professor Joe Smith, director of RGS-IBG to find out more…

Photography News: Why was the competition set up? What are its aims? How many years has the competition been running for? Joe Smith: This is the second year of Earth Photo, building on the success of the inaugural year in 2018. The aim of the competition and exhibition is to capture a sense of our ever- changing world. The breadth of the categories allows for exploration from themicro tomacro level. We’re particularly interested in bodies of work, so it differs from other photography competitions as we’re not preoccupied with one stand-out image, but rather photographs and films that enable a better understanding of the world around us. PN: Can you tell us about your role within the competition and how long you have been involved with Earth Photo? MarissaRoth: This ismy second year as a juror on Earth Photo, and my ongoing involvement has been both as an advisor and selector. This year, I will be the chair of the jury committee and will also be teaching some photography workshops at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) as part of the competition. PN: What prizes are up for grabs? JS: £1000 will be awarded to one outstanding photographer, and winners will also be selected for each of the four categories: People, Nature, Place and Changing Forests. The category winners will each receive £250, and there will also be a Short Film prize. Winning work will be exhibited to audiences for free at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in South Kensington, right in the heart of London’s Museum Quarter. The exhibition will then tour to a number of Forestry England sites. PN: Can you talk us through the categories and what you expect to see? Have you found any categories more popular than others? MR: We chose to maintain three categories

from last year’s competition, People, Place, and Nature as they encompass how humans exist, impact, interact and react to living on earth, affording the submissions a broad range of subject matter from geography to the environment. We added a different fourth category this year, Changing Forests, as we felt that given that Forestry England jointly developed Earth Photo with the Royal

Geographical Society (with IBG), there should be an added emphasis on forests. Based on last year’s submissions, which garnered many more than we expected and were of a very high quality, I hope to see the same level of work and commitment this year. Submissions were from a wide range of global photographers, with many entering from the UK too. Regarding the popularity of the categories, I’d say that Nature was, by far, the category receiving most submissions. PN: What about the film category, why did you decide to include a Short Film award? MR:Wehada small number of films submitted last year, which were very strong. But since making a film involves a very different set of skills to making still photographs, we felt that we should make this a separate category with a specific juror with expertise in this field, to judge these. PN: Who is on this year’s judging panel? What are the judges looking for? JS: People are often surprised by the number of Earth Photo judges, nine in total, really interesting individuals including artists and photographers, museum curators, society directors and geographical magazine editors. But the aim of the project is to really draw attention to the number of voices that make up the conversation about our planet and the

We chose to maintain three categories from last year’s competition as they encompass how humans exist

Left Burnt Aftermath #3 – Walk by Mark Benham, 2017 Above Chinstrap penguin resting at Spigot Peak, the Antarctic Peninsula by Christian Aslund, 2018

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