The 17th edition of Fotofestiwal – International Festival of Photography in Łódź has just begun. As every year, the opening of all main program exhibitions takes place after the announcement of the results for the Grand Prix Fotofestiwal 2018 competition and the award of the Photographic Publication of the Year title.
The Grand Prix Fotofestiwal 2018 and 10,000 PLN went to Alexandra Polina for Masks, Myths and Subjects.
The protagonists of the photo series are the members of visible minorities who were born, raised and educated in Germany. Polina’s images deal with a social divisions created by prejudice and stigmatization. The clichéd folklore settings and common fly in the face of stereotypes. The result is a collage of personal experiences and bias faced by foreigners in Germany. The images are combined with the still-lives featuring everyday objects
exoticized. More info about the project you can find HERE.
Fifty publications have been submitted to the competition. After a long deliberation process, the jury has decided to admit nineteen books to the exhibition and the finals. They have been chosen on the basis of their high-quality graphic design, which always goes hand in hand with the photographic content. The jury has decided to commend those publications in which this unity is flawless. Where the project is the extension of the issue raised by photography and the resources are selected with exceptional accuracy. Each and every one of those books is a fully and outstandingly elaborated individual utterance. This means that the commended books are remarkable, authorial projects: Traces by Weronika Gęsicka, OVER by Kacper Kowalski and Architektura przetrwania [Architecture of Survival] by Tomasz Szerszeń.
It is the jury’s decision to also commend two editorial collectives that work with zines: Azimuth Press and 8991 Publishing. Their high level of productivity and quality is surprising, taking into consideration their modest resources. Though each publication is the effect of joint work, where along with the author of the photographs stands the designer, photo-editor, prepress responsible, editor, etc., the cooperation of a collective changes the hierarchy in the process of their creation. The jury has considered opting for this model to be worthy of pointing out and underlying.
The Krzysztof Makowski Award and the title of Photographic Publication of the Year goes to a truly spectacular and unique book, impossible to be associated to any other publication, once you hold it in your hands. It presents a singular composition, which shows not only the perfect project match, but also the indivisible character of the works it conveys. This publication is striking, almost ornamental, where form and the challenging topic of archive collide. It is a complete project, extremely formal and refined in terms of production. The perfect, uncompromising book of Rafał Milach “Pierwszy Marsz Dżentelmenów” [The First March of Gentlemen].
Exhibitions of the winners and finalists of both competitions can be viewed until June 21 during the Fotofestiwal, at Art_Inkubator, at ul. Tymienieckiego 3 (Photographic Publication of the Year) and OFF Piotrkowska Center, ul. Piotrkowska 138/140 (Grand Prix).
