This year’s winners of the Hungary 365 photo competition have been announced
The winners of this year’s Hungary 365 photo competition were announced on Thursday in Budapest. 16 applicants received recognition from a jury of renowned professionals.
In difficult times and in uncertainty, it is necessary to notice the beautiful and the good, in difficult times we really need what keeps us on the right path – emphasized Csaba Dömötör, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, at the award ceremony held in the Eiffel Workshop.
This year, 3,500 people applied for the contest for amateur and professional photographers, and the professional jury selected the award-winning shots from almost 38,000 photos.
According to Csaba Dömötör, photography makes a moment permanent: it captures, emphasizes and preserves, and it does all this in a rapidly changing and uncertain world.
He believed that it takes a special sense to recognize permanence. The state secretary stated that since last year’s award ceremony, the application has taken new and new paths: it has traveled the Danube River, and is currently being presented in an open-air exhibition in Debrecen, but according to their plans, the photographs will be shown in several cities across the country.
Csaba Dömötör thanked his colleagues and the jury members, who “have been working for a long time to make this application the biggest such initiative in the country”.
He also talked about how the pictures give a glimpse of the Hungary of 2021 and show its most beautiful faces from various points of view. It turns out from them that there are many captivating and uplifting places, period buildings and communities that want to live in Hungary. Finally, Klebelsberg quoted Kuno and said:
a nation acquires the right to the land that is its homeland only by attaching it to itself with immortal works.
This year, Eiffel Műhelyház once again hosted the photo contest’s award ceremony – emphasized Szilveszter Ókovács, the general director of the Hungarian State Opera House, who says that photography is the branch of fine art that “it combines human sense, taste and artistic attitude with technology. From the cooperation of man and technology, something higher is born, a kind of transcendent work is created– said the director general.
Once again this year, professional and amateur photographers could apply for the Hungary 365 photo competition in three categories: nature and landscape, built and tangible heritage, and life portraits.
The professional jury awarded three prizes in all three categories, the first place winner received HUF 1 million, the second place received HUF 500 thousand, and the third place received HUF 300 thousand. The winners of the public vote also received a HUF 1 million reward per category.
Based on the decision of the professional jury, the first place in the nature and landscape category was Csaba Daróczi’s Constellation of Fishes, the second place was Tibor Litauszki’s Áthúzás, and the third place was Tibor Prisznyák’s picture Dawn Vision. Audience Award for Balázs Makai’s recording of Dew Dragonfly. The special prize of the Hungarian Hiking Association was awarded to Milán Radisics for the series Roxy, our neighbor.
In the category of built and tangible heritage, the first prize of the jury was awarded to Csaba Daróczi’s House of Hungarian Music, the second prize to Gábor Novák’s Ködtakaró, and the third to Ilona Hodossy’s photo entitled Ccúcsra fel. The audience award for Dóra Herman’s recording A fairytale castle. Tibor Holczer’s photo “Pentele Bridge” won the special prize of the Hungarian Tourist Agency.
In the portraits category, the jury won the first place with István M. Kerekes with his series The charms of the moment, Márton Mohos second with Búcsú, and Andrea Kiss third with his series BuSHOW. Péter Orbán’s photo “From the front row” won the audience award.
The special prize of the National Association of Large Families was awarded to Nándor Szabó for his picture The Way of Life, and the special prize of the Opera House was won by Zsila Sándor’s series The Old Lady.
The tender was announced for the fourth time this year by the government of Hungary in cooperation with the Hungarian Hiking Association, the National Association of Large Families and the Hungarian Tourist Agency.
The goal of the photo competition is to present the natural and built heritage of our country, the holidays and everyday life of the people living here, all that we can be proud of in Hungary, through the lens of the creators, with a unique vision. The initiative also gives the participants the opportunity to show and promote their works to the general public.
The jury was chaired by photographer Ottó Kaiser, its members were Kossuth Award-winning photographer Éva Keleti, photographer László Haris, distinguished artist, board member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, environmental researcher Imre Potyó, laureate of the 2020 competition, in 2018 and 2020 the year was a nature photographer and photographer Tamás Rizsavi.